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Richard Hell

Richard Hell Quotes

Singer-songwriter

Richard Hell is an influential American singer-songwriter, born on October 2, 1949. Known for his unique musical style and artistic impact, he is one of the pioneers of the punk rock movement.

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Famous Richard Hell Quotes

“Amazing how the most obvious things escape your notice. Maybe the truth is exactly the things you don't notice. Maybe the aim to see and tell the truth is inherently futile, a contradiction in terms, and it's exactly those things about oneself and the world that are invisible because they are woven into one's fabric that are the truth. Just like a person can't see his own eyes. You search and search and search, and the truth, by definition, is exactly that which you don't find. You don't see the truth, you are the truth. "Habits of attention are reflexes of the complete character of an individual." And how could you notice your own habits of attention? By writing. Well, at their most profound level? It doesn't make any difference. That is the point. It's like Zen. The truth is not straining for the truth, the truth is in effortlessness. The truth is in being, not trying. Aw hell, that doesn't leave much too chew on.”

Truth Zen Habits Of Attention

Book:Go Now

Source: Go Now

“We know that we are constructed of time, not of sequence, and it is impossible to write time “not of sequence,” except maybe in poetic flashes. I didn’t want to write about a person through time, but about time through a person.”

Book:I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp

Source: I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp

“There are characters in [punk] that do deliberately go as far as they can in certain kind of taboo areas.”

Kind Character Certain Areas Punk Taboo

Author:Richard Hell

“If you take text and image and you put them together, the multiple readings that are possible in either poetry or in something visual are reduced to one specific reading. By putting the two together, you limit the possibilities. Text and image don't always work together in the way music and song lyrics become part of each other.”

Ifs Way Two Together Song Reading Possibility Limits Visuals Working Together Multiple

Author:Richard Hell

“The purpose of rock n' roll is to convince girls to pay money to get close to you.”

Purpose Girl Pay Rocks Convince Rock N Roll

Author:Richard Hell

“I've come to think of myself as a writer of books.”

Author:Richard Hell

“I like writing non-fiction - and when you pick a [non-fiction] subject, it saves you the hassle of coming up with a plot.”

Writing Fiction Subjects Picks Plot Non Fiction Hassle

Author:Richard Hell

“I never thought I would write an autobiography, probably because my first novel, Go Now, is really all drawn from my life, even though it's more about the psychology going on.”

Writing Firsts Novel Psychology Autobiography

Author:Richard Hell

“The problem with an autobiography is that all these extra factors make it difficult. You don't want to hurt people's feelings. You don't know how much you can trust your memory. You don't want it to be self-serving. And you have all these issues about how to present yourself. All these factors make it harder to do than a novel.”

People Knows Want Self Feelings Problem Difficult Hurt Memories Novel Know How Issues Harder Factors Extras Serving Autobiography Our Memories Self Serving

Author:Richard Hell

“You're always thinking, "What does that add up to?" You can't really get a handle on it. I was curious. I felt like it would be an interesting challenge for me to write down what I'd seen and done and learned - all the convolutions captured in one item that I could look at and get some grip on what the hell happened.”

Thinking Writing Looks Doe Done Would Be Felt Challenges Interesting Hell Happened Add Handle Curious Items Up To You Captured Always Thinking

Author:Richard Hell

“I believe in people treating each other with respect.”

People Believe I Believe I Believe In

Author:Richard Hell

“Another thing that's good about writing to describe a situation or a state of consciousness is that you can finally get it right. That was my intention, and that's always interesting.”

Writing States Interesting Consciousness Situation Intention States Of Consciousness

Author:Richard Hell

“I'm not into this memoir craze that's been going on for 20 years now and doesn't seem to ever let up. People just indiscriminately say "memoir" now when it's a person writing about their own life.”

People Writing Years Persons Seems Memoir Craze

Author:Richard Hell

“A memoir is a book about some particular thread or theme or moment in a person's life, whereas an autobiography is the entire life.”

Persons Book Moments Particular Memoir Theme Thread Autobiography

Author:Richard Hell

“I'm someone who's really susceptible to tears.”

Tears Susceptible

Author:Richard Hell

“I usually don't think of anyone ever suspecting that I might be someone who'd cry at stuff. I cry at movies all the time. And sometimes it really pisses me off because I hate it when they're just jerking my chain and it's just like completely manipulative.”

Thinking Sometimes Might Hate Stuff Cry I Hate Chains Manipulative

Author:Richard Hell

“Nothing lasts in New York. Everything's always changing in really obvious ways.”

Way Lasts New York Obvious

Author:Richard Hell

“There's nothing left of my hometown in Kentucky. All those small and mid-sized towns and cities in the U.S. are just about malls around the edges and suburbs. That was definitely a loss, because everything just gets homogenized. You can't tell where you are, it's all the same.”

Left Loss Cities Towns Edges Where You Are Suburbs Malls Hometown Kentucky

Author:Richard Hell

“we still have the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building and the Woolworth Building, but it just seems like part of the nature of New York, that it's always shifting.”

Stills States Seems New York Building Empires Shifting Empire State Building Empire State Chrysler Chrysler Building

Author:Richard Hell

“I remember the revelation it was to me when I realized I'd rather be smart in the way Elvis Presley was than in the way, say, Ludwig Wittgenstein was. The thing was, you could imagine you could be smart like Wittgenstein by just thinking hard enough, but Elvis just had it. It was almost spiritual. A kind of grace.”

Thinking Way Kind Hard Enough Remember Spiritual Grace Imagine Smart I Realized Revelations Being Smart Thinking Hard

Author:Richard Hell

“In fact I thought life was pretty much a losing proposition, and I didn't mind saying so.”

Mind Facts Losing Propositions Thoughts On Life

Author:Richard Hell

“You realize there are certain things that you'll never do that you always thought would be part of your future. It's a big relief to discover what you are best suited for, and it's a real advantage to be able then to focus.”

Real Bigs Would Be Able Certain Realizing Focus Advantage Relief Our Future Your Future

Author:Richard Hell

“I shake my head and the tiny acrobats fall like spangles, like the cool rain on another planet, down to the inside of my feet.”

Fall Feet Planets Rain Tiny Shakes

Book:Go Now

Source: Go Now

“I decided I wanted out because it was killing me, and I couldnt see where to go with it that wouldnt be fatal.”

Wanted Decided Killing

Author:Richard Hell

“Things always change, and New York teaches you that.”

Author:Richard Hell

“I felt just overwhelmed by input: the Vietnam War and the collapse of the '60s and the proliferation of media' it just felt like everything was too much to handle and you just tuned out.”

War Felt Too Much Media Handle Vietnam Collapse Overwhelmed Vietnam War Input Proliferation

Author:Richard Hell

“I do everything halfway, a thing of which adults disapprove, but things done halfway are deceptive, and in a class of their own – for instance, the sun is really twice its size.”

Done Class Sun Adults Size Instance Halfway Things Done Deceptive

Author:Richard Hell

“I'm usually alone or asleep, at home.”

Author:Richard Hell

“A memoir takes some particular threads, some incidents, some experience from a person's life and gives an account of it.”

Giving Persons Particular Accounts Memoir Thread Incidents

Author:Richard Hell

“An autobiography is a life story. It starts when you're born and continues until the end.”

Ends Stories Born Autobiography Life Story

Author:Richard Hell

“I love a good play, but they're too hard to find.”

Author:Richard Hell

“Poetry's always dead, you know? You don't realize how good poetry is until 15 years later.”

Knows Years Realizing Poetry Is Good Poetry

Author:Richard Hell

“It used to be that artists thought of nature as their environment. Now media is our environment. It has been for the past 50, 70 years. It's what you see on TV, on the computer, what is in the magazines and newspapers.”

Years Has Beens Past Used Artist Environment Media Tvs Computer Newspapers Used To Be Magazines Our Environment

Author:Richard Hell

“It's really interesting with art-movies too, but art especially - to see how your attitude toward artists and works and your level of appreciation of them is always shifting and changing over the years.”

Years Art Artist Interesting Levels Attitude Appreciation Shifting Really Interesting

Author:Richard Hell

“Well, I thought the Sex Pistols were the cream of the crop. They came in and topped everybody, for sure. They took all the existing strands and made a perfect package out of them.”

Wells Made Sex Perfect Cream Packages Crops Strands Pistols Sex Pistols Cream Of The Crop

Author:Richard Hell

“When you're young, you don't especially think of yourself as being young. You're just alive and everything's interesting and you don't think of things in terms of age because you're not conscious of it.”

Thinking Age Young Term Interesting Alive Conscious Think Of You

Author:Richard Hell

About the Author

Born: October 2, 1949
Known for: Singer-songwriter
Quotes: 36

Related Topics

Thinking Writing Autobiography Interesting Years Memoir New York People Persons Way

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Go NowRelated source material

I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean TrampRelated source material

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