Quotes by John Cale

• In cities like New York and Austin, there's much more of a social context for music than in other places.
• All of the sudden the audiences started getting younger and the spread of the attendance was really wide. I think it's as a result of the records selling more that they started following our careers.
• Even if you're improvising, the fact that beforehand you know certain things will work helps you make those improvisations successful. It really helps to have a certain amount of knowledge about musical structure.
• Growing up in Wales was a pretty Draconian experience with religion.
• I learn from thinking about the future, what hasn't been done yet. That's kind of my constant obsession.
• I like what the future holds. I don't like thinking about the past.
• When somebody grabs a movement, you're kind of locked into it. It's all par for the course.
• I want to get lean and mean, keep it minimalist.
• I'm content with making records, but I don't want to be doing the same thing all the time.
• I'm impatient. I get twitchy. When I get that feeling I just go out and make something happen.
• I'm writing a movie about Mozart going to New York in the '60s. I've been reading so many novels.
• If you're all loaded up on love, you haven't got anywhere else to go.
• Time plays a role in almost every decision. And some decisions define your attitude about time.
• I missed out on my teenage years. I led a sheltered life. I was practicing scales instead of playing football.
• I never use the word, it's loaded. What love means to me is need.
• What I enjoy most about being on stage is that the natural instruments give you a greater freedom with texture. When you use natural instruments they have their own resonance.
• If I'm interested in what I'm doing, other people will be interested in it.
• We gave up on the idea of trying to make the record a good representation of the live performance.
• The value of having a computer, to me, is that it'll remember everything you do. It's a databank.
• The only reason we wore sunglasses onstage was because we couldn't stand the sight of the audience.
• The avant-garde makes more sense to me.
• That's what my life is, writing songs.
• People sort of know me for that solo piano music I did.
• We'd hold a chord for three hours if we could.