“People have habits about what they think songs should be like. There's the folky thing of: "Poor me, I'm a sensitive person in a cruel world." Or the pop thing of: "Hey, look at me, I'm sexy."” PeopleThinkingWorldShouldLooksPersonsSongPoorHabitSexyPopsHeySensitiveLook At MeCruel WorldSensitive PersonPoor Me Author:Robert Wyatt
“Because I'm associated with an avant-garde sensibility, people think I'm looking down on popular culture, but I don't want to be part of a new elitism.” PeopleThinkingWantCultureSensibilityPopular CultureAvant GardeLooking DownElitism Author:Robert Wyatt
“There are a lot of composers who were fantastic, but I challenge them to write a record that you could play five times a day for two months on the radio, songs that people will want to dance to on a Saturday night.” PeopleWantWritingTwoPlayNightSongChallengesRecordsFiveMonthsRadioFantasticComposerSaturdaySaturday NightTwo Months Author:Robert Wyatt
“I get slightly irritated by people who say they're natural rebels because it just means that they're going to be against whatever anybody does, which is almost like saying you might as well leave it as it is.” PeopleWellsMeanDoeMightNaturalRebelIrritated Author:Robert Wyatt
“The gap between rich and poor is, in fact, widening enormously. This idea of building up the powers of people who are already powerful and keeping everyone else back is a recipe for endless misery and conflict.” PeopleIdeasFactsPoorPowerfulRichBuildingConflictMiseryEndlessGapsRecipesRich And PoorBuilding Up Author:Robert Wyatt
“Because of my politics, people think I'm anti-American. But I was quite the reverse. What I don't like about the United States is when the government acts like an old, imperial 18th- or 19th-century European power.” PeopleThinkingStatesGovernmentUnitedUnited StatesCenturyReverse19th CenturyAnti-american Author:Robert Wyatt
“Potentially, America is really the greatest, but it's not yet, I don't think. It's too much like an old-fashioned empire, waving the stick and dropping too many bombs on too many people.” PeopleThinkingAmericaToo MuchSticksBombsEmpiresOld FashionedDropping Author:Robert Wyatt
“People who had empires, unfortunately, want them back eventually, somehow, someway.” PeopleWantEmpires Author:Robert Wyatt
“Clint Eastwood said, the only things America has contributed to civilization are the western and jazz. And I don't think westerns are bad, but lots of people make great cinema. But jazz is right there.” PeopleThinkingSaidAmericaCivilizationJazzWesternCinema Author:Robert Wyatt
“People are quite shocked when you remind them that Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra never wrote a song that they recorded in their lives, as far as I know.” PeopleKnowsSongFrankShocked Author:Robert Wyatt
“I don't think losing things - in my case, the use of my legs - really damages or hurts you. What hurts people a lot is taking humiliation. A lot of the wars going on right now in the Middle East aren't about poverty and exploitation. They're about humiliation. For a long time, the British and French have been humiliating the people of the Middle East, and encouraging people like Israel to do the same. Israel started out as a socialist state, but we always encouraged them to become rather racist and look down on the local inhabitants, which they now do. It's sad that's happened.” PeopleThinkingLongWarHurtPovertyLosingRacistExploitationSocialistHumiliationHumiliating Author:Robert Wyatt
“I get slightly irritated by people who say they're natural rebels because it just means that they're going to be against whatever anybody does, which is almost like saying you might as well leave it as it is. I'm naturally quite conformist, really. If I go to a country and they say, "You've got to drive on the right," I'm not going to drive on the left to show that I'm different. I'm able to stick to the law. I'm not a soldier for anything, either. I'm only a singer and I don't think it makes a difference what we sing.” PeopleThinkingMeanDifferentCountryNaturalSoldierMaking A DifferenceRebelIrritatedConformist Author:Robert Wyatt
“I think there are deep structural things that are wrong in the world. The US is the Western empire of the 19th century regrouping in the 20th, not out of wickedness, but because everybody else in Eurasia was so completely destroyed by the Second World War. Economically, that was quite a useful time for the US, so they ended up in the position of enormous power. And like any great power, they're going to act in their own interests. The problem is due to what the business community wants, which is to make as much money as they can out of what other people do and pay as little as possible for it.” PeopleThinkingWorldWarProblemInterestCommunityWesternWar Of The Worlds19th CenturySecond World WarGreat Power Author:Robert Wyatt
“In fact, when the fires of empire get hidden, they still stay burning underneath the moss, seething away. This is true with a lot of the countries with really difficult, impenetrable nationalist movements - countries that once had a big empire, like Turkey, England, or even in Italy, with the fascists in the middle of the last century. People who had empires, unfortunately, want them back eventually, somehow, someway.” PeopleCountryDifficult Author:Robert Wyatt
“I'll probably lose every friend I've got, but I think the Russians are about the only people who have behaved decently in the conflict with the Ukraine. All the evidence to the contrary seems a bit bogus to me. NATO is trying to use Ukraine to isolate and cripple Russia, and that's completely crazy and very cruel. It seems to me that our side, the English and American people, really want it to go bad there. But there's no need for it to have done so. At least that's what I think. You won't hear a lot of that on Fox News.” PeopleThinkingTryingDoneCrazyConflictEvidenceNato Author:Robert Wyatt
“I understand why Vladimir Putin is very popular in Russia - he's probably the first Russian leader to not apologize for being Russian. People always pin it down to one man, but there's hundreds of millions of Russians of various sorts. Putin does seem to be very popular in Russia, if only because he stands up for Russians wherever they are, which is exactly what Americans do with Americans, of course.” PeopleMenLeaderVariousApologizingVery Popular Author:Robert Wyatt
“It's funny that Chairman Mao's great hero was Napoleon, because Napoleon started out as a revolutionary for the underdogs and then made himself an emperor. In fact, a lot of revolutionary leaders do that, and you think, "Well, that's spoiling your argument. What are you doing?" But on the other hand, the people themselves are enjoying trying out all these different ways to be. I hope that, like the Japanese, the Chinese hang on to their own traditions as well as try out Western ones. I hate it when people just lose so much confidence in who they are that they abandon their own culture.” PeopleThinkingTryingDifferentHateCultureEnjoyLeaderHeroArgumentTraditionI HateWesternChineseRevolutionaryAbandonEmperorUnderdog Author:Robert Wyatt
“I don't want an entire world full of people just drinking Coca-Cola and eating McDonald's hamburgers and listening to American pop records. That would be a lesser world. I hope the cultural diversity is rich and is able to survive the Westernization of their economies.” PeopleWorldEconomyRichListeningDiversityEatingDrinking Author:Robert Wyatt
“I know people who grow old and bitter. I want to keep making a fresh start. I don't want them to defeat me. That would be suicidal.” PeopleKnowsWantLifeWould BeGrowsSuicideDefeatBitterBitternessSuicidalKeep MovingFresh Start Author:Robert Wyatt
“I play music a lot but on my own mostly, so it was nice to be around other people. There was a certain sense a relief in the physical act of just playing and being with other musicians.” PeoplePlayCertainMy OwnNiceMusicianReliefBeing Nice Author:Robert Wyatt
“I think the people who did well, or are happy, in a youth industry, they define themselves out of the business after a decade or so.” PeopleThinkingWellsBusinessYouthIndustryDecades Author:Robert Wyatt
“Im not, by nature, a collaborator. My biggest influences were people like painters and poets. These are solitary workers.” PeopleNatureInfluencePoetWorkersPainterSolitaryCollaborators Author:Robert Wyatt
“There are people I would like to work with. Its a bit harder, because I live out in the sticks anyway, and plus being in a wheelchair means that I cant really circulate. So I tend to stick to my own thing.” PeopleMeanBitsWorkMy OwnHarderSticksPlusCantWheelchairs Author:Robert Wyatt
“People say, oh it's a shame, you're not nostalgic about the '60s. Well actually, it's quite good, when you think of it. Wouldn't it be sad if I was sitting here wishing it back?” PeopleIfsThinkingWellsWishSittingShameNostalgic Author:Robert Wyatt
“My heroes are people like Picasso and Miro and people who at last really reach something in their old age, which they absolutely couldn't ever have done in their youth.” PeopleDoneAgeLastsYouthHeroOld AgeMy HeroFirefighter Author:Robert Wyatt
“Love is blind. My politics has been, too. I think you can fall in love with ideas, and you can fall in love with people. It's a very subjective experience. And I'm loyal to that experience.” PeopleThinkingHas BeensIdeasFallLove IsExperienceBlindFalling In LoveLoyalSubjectiveSubjectivityLove Is Blind Author:Robert Wyatt
“I would encourage people to realize that you don't have to panic if you're not part of a mainstream, or if you find yourself outside the flow. If it doesn't suit you, don't go along with it. Just sit it out and get your stuff done. Don't just sit moaning or getting drunk—I spent some years doing that. But if you can just come up with something of your own, however minor it is, that's going to be easier to live with when you're at the end of your life.” PeopleIfsYearsEndsDoneStuffRealizingEasierFlowCome UpSuitsDrunkFinding YourselfMainstreamPanicMinorsMoaningGetting DrunkSuits You Author:Robert Wyatt
