Bruce Springsteen
77 quotes
Biography
"Someday we'll look back on this and it will all seem funny."
"It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive."
"You'll walk with me out on the wire, cuz baby, I'm just a scared and lonely rider, but I gotta know how it feels... I want to know love is wild, babe, I want to know love is real."
"This music is forever for me. It's the stage thing, that rush moment that you live for. It never lasts, but that's what you live for."
"Music was my way of keeping people from looking through and around me. I wanted the heavies to know I was around."
"I have the feeling that the night you look at your audience and don't see yourself, and the night the audience looks at you and doesn't see themselves reflected in you, it's all over."
"I think what's happening now is people want to forget. There was Vietnam, there was Watergate, there was Iran – we were beaten, we were hustled, and then we were humiliated. And I think people got a need to feel good about the country they live in. But what's happening, I think, is that that need – which is a good thing – is gettin' manipulated and exploited. And you see the Reagan reelection ads on TV – you know: "It's morning in America." And you say, well, it's not morning in Pittsburgh. It's not morning above 125th Street in New York. It's midnight, and, like, there's a bad moon risin'. And that's why when Reagan mentioned my name in New Jersey, I felt it was another manipulation, and I had to disassociate myself from the president's kind words."
"Your success story is a bigger story than whatever you’re trying to say on stage... Success makes life easier. It doesn’t make living easier."
"We're here to re-dedicate you to The Power, The Passion, The Mystery, and The Ministry of Rock and Roll."
"The country we carry in our hearts is waiting. And together, we can move America towards her deepest ideals. And besides, we had a sax player in the House. We need a guitar player in the White House."
"The America that I love, the America that has been a beacon for hope and liberty all around the world, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless and treasonous administration. Tonight, we ask all of you to join with us in choosing hope over fear, democracy over authoritarianism, the rule of law over lawlessness, ethics over unbridled corruption, resistance over complacency, truth over lies, unity over division and peace over …” — punctuating his speech by leading the E Street Band into an explosive cover of Edwin Starr’s “War” followed with “Born in the USA.”"
"At this point, I don’t need my records to be Number One or sell as many as this person or that person. That’s not fundamentally important — I don’t believe that sustains you."
"In the third grade a nun stuffed me in a garbage can under her desk because she said that’s where I belonged."
"There ain't a note that I play on stage that can’t be traced back directly to my mother and father."
"The first day I can remember looking into a mirror and being able to stand what I saw was the day I had a guitar in my hand."
"You ride in a limousine the first time, it’s a big thrill but after that it’s just a stupid car."
"Blind faith in your leaders, or in anything, will get you killed."
"Come on, rise up! Come on, rise up!"
"The wise men were all fools, what to do?"
"I think music changed when Bruce Springsteen came on the scene. I think if it wasn't for Bruce Springsteen, we may have gone in a very scary direction. We may have gotten to the point where disco music ruled and I would have had to quit."
"Here was a dude who carried himself like Brando, Dylan, and Elvis. If John Steinbeck could sing, if Van Morrison could ride a Harley-Davidson. But he was something new, too. He was the first whiff of Scorsese, the first hint of Patti Smith, Elvis Costello, and the Clash. He was the end of long hair, brown rice and bell bottoms. It was the end of the 20-minute drum solo. It was good night, Haight-Ashbury; hello, Asbury Park."
"America was staggering when Springsteen appeared. The president had just resigned in disgrace. The U.S. had lost its first war. There was going to be no more oil in the ground. The days of cruising and big cars were supposed to be over. But Bruce Springsteen's vision was bigger than a Honda, it was bigger than a Subaru. Bruce made you believe that dreams were still out there, but after loss and defeat, they had to be braver, not just bigger."
"We call him the Boss. Well that's a bunch of crap. He's not the boss. He works for us."
"Bruce Springsteen feels familiar to us. But it's not an easy familiarity, is it? Even his band seems to stand taller when he walks in the room. It's complex. He's America's writer, and critic. It's like in Badlands, he's Martin Sheen and Terrence Malick. To be so accessible and so private, there's a rubric. But then again, he is an Irish-Italian, with a Jewish-sounding name. What more do you want? Add one big African sax player, and no one in this room is gonna fuck with you!"
"In 1974, I was 14. Even I knew the '60s were over. It was the era of soft-rock infusion. The Beatles were gone, Elvis was in Vegas. What was goin' on? Nothin' was goin' on. Bruce Springsteen was comin' on, saving music from the phonies, saving lyrics from the folkies, saving black leather jackets from the Fonz."