“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
“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.” ThinkingDifferencesSoldierSingersMaking A Difference Author:Robert Wyatt
“I do think there are deep structural things that are wrong in the world.” ThinkingWorld 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
“We've all got to earn a living. And writing songs is what I do. But when I've done a record, it's not that I think it's better or worse than anyone else's, but if I think that nobody else would have done it if I hadn't, well then that's ok.” IfsThinkingWritingWellsDoneSongRecordsWriting Songs 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
“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
“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
“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 think it's hypocritical to complain about the rise of China. For 50 years, we were telling everybody in the world that the big threat was Communism, so now the countries that were Communists are now rampant capitalists - and they're doing very well, in some ways much better than the UK. Well, we asked for it. We told them that's what you have to do, and they're doing it, buying up your biggest hotels in New York. You have to laugh.” ThinkingWorldCountryLaughingThreatComplainingCommunismHotelCommunistCapitalistHypocritical Author:Robert Wyatt
“I think that pop, and to some extent rock, are like sport and fashion industry in that they're about the exuberance of youth. That's the sort of subliminal ideology.” ThinkingSportsRocksFashionYouthIndustryPopsIdeologyFashion IndustryExuberanceSubliminal Author:Robert Wyatt
“I would like to think that the singer is the butterfly, and the drummer was just the little grub in the ground, working to become a caterpillar” ThinkingLittlesSingersButterflyDrummerCaterpillarsLike A Butterfly Author:Robert Wyatt
“Anybody who thinks pop music's easy should try to make a pop single and find out that it isn't.” ThinkingShouldTryingEasyPopsRock N RollPop Music 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
“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
“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 only choose musicians who I think will emerge, can emerge, with their own character, while still going along with the tune in question.” ThinkingStillsCharacterMusicianTunes Author:Robert Wyatt
“I've always liked pop music. There was a bit of a misunderstanding with the avant-garde rock scene, because I think I was sort of swimming the wrong way, really.” ThinkingWayBitsMusicRocksScenePopsSwimmingMisunderstandingPop MusicWrong WayAvant Garde Author:Robert Wyatt
