Home / Quotes / Quote by Van Dyke Parks

Quote by Van Dyke Parks

“I notice that so many of my peers, aging ingénues, rock stars, are moving along in life into their wrinkles with an adoring audience that's aging as well, and the plain truth is that I wasn't condemned by that because I've never had to be somebody to do something. I don't have a five year-plan. I just hope the phone will ring and it will bring an opportunity to dominate my life.”

Quote by Van Dyke Parks

Author

Van Dyke Parks, born on January 3, 1943, is an American composer known for his unique musical style and contributions to popular music. more

You May Also Like

“The problem with an economic meltdown is that the responsibility and the challenges to deal with the environment are squandered. That's an age-old battle in terms of the major conflicts in places like Afghanistan, etc. So there are age-old battles that'll keep going on. Unfortunately, man is a very slow learner, and we tend to repeat mistakes, as opposed to learning from mistakes.”

Men Problem Term Challenges Mistake Responsibility Environment Economic Battle Conflict Keep Going Afghanistan Learning From Mistakes

Author:John Hillcoat

“I don't want to give too much lugubrious thought to the gravitas of a coherent album. I don't want to develop a life of slavery to a large topic. I want to throw out some singles and that's what I'm doing, and they're not to be done in any other way.”

Giving Done Slavery

Author:Van Dyke Parks

“I realized I couldn't get bookings as a performing artist on the road, as it were, I could not make a living in music without going on the road, but I couldn't get booked without a new product. People say, "Where's your new album?" Well, I have no new album, and I'm not going to have a new album. They said, "What are you doing?" I'm performing music that I've done my entire life that I've never performed, and I'm promoting material that I haven't promoted.”

People Done Artist I Realized Performing Performing Arts

Author:Van Dyke Parks

“By doing what I do, by just staying, pardon me, true to myself and maintaining my maverick position, unbranded, unbought in a corporate sense, I've managed to migrate to and participate in the work of people far younger than my own children. This astounds me. It makes me feel all at once, beyond retirement age, as a player in the present tense. I'm a lucky guy.”

People Children Age Guy Player Lucky Retirement Maverick

Author:Van Dyke Parks

“Eclectic is a word that appears almost as much as the word smarmy in rock journalism and I've come to the fact, just as a personal side, this reminds of Oscar Wilde's insight that criticism is the highest form of autobiography. I think that's exactly what rock journalism has attempted to do, to celebrate its autobiography at my expense.”

Thinking Criticism Insight Celebrate Journalism Autobiography Eclectic

Author:Van Dyke Parks

“I have this amazing team that I trust. I completely go with their decisions on things. I don't have to go in and micromanage everything. And I think the other thing is, you start to sort of... I wouldn't say relax, because I've never relaxed. But I've tried to have more confidence in the things I like, or the things other people like. That's really the big thing in this job, to second-guess yourself all the time.”

People Thinking Decision Team Relax

Author:Matthew Weiner

“I think there's a kind of elegance to it, to work within that framework where what you don't see is often more enticing.”

Thinking Kind Elegance Enticing

Author:Matthew Weiner

“"The Anatomy of Terror: From the Death of Bin Laden to the Rise of the Islamic State": I was happy that we finally got him. And a lot of my colleagues and friends that I know who sacrificed so much, some of them their lives, you know, finally can rest, knowing that he's dead.But also, at the same time, I kind of was troubled that we are now not fighting an organization anymore. The terrorists, the threat mutated to a message. Bin Laden accomplished something way bigger. He had a message that was spreading around the Muslim world.”

World Kind Fighting Threat Terror Terrorist Islamic Accomplished Bin Laden Anatomy

Author:Ali Soufan

“Unfortunately, on May 2, 2011, we killed bin Laden, but we didn't kill his message. His message lives.”

Author:Ali Soufan

“Today, we see ISIS dwindling. We see that terrorist organization, with all their bravado, losing their territory and going back from a proto-state to an underground terrorist organization.”

Today Losing Terrorist

Author:Ali Soufan