Bruce Springsteen

"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 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."

"I don’t think anybody truly knows where we’re going from here yet. It depends on too many unknowns. We don’t know where the COVID virus is going to take us. We don’t know where Black Lives Matter is going to take us right now. Do we get a real practical conversation going about race and policing and ultimately about the economic inequality that’s been a stain on our social contract? And of course, nobody knows where our next election is going to take us. I believe that our current president is a threat to our democracy. He simply makes any kind of reform that much harder. I don’t know if our democracy could stand another four years of his custodianship. These are all existential threats to our democracy and our American way of life."

"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."

"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."

"I was bruised and battered and I couldn't tell What I felt. I was unrecognizable to myself. I saw my reflection in a window I didn't know My own face. Oh brother are you gonna leave me? Wastin' away On the streets of Philadelphia."

"Ain't no angel gonna greet me. It's just you and I my friend. My clothes don't fit me no more. I walked a thousand miles Just to slip this skin."

"She'll let you in her house If you come knockin' late at night. She'll let you in her mouth If the words you say are right. If you pay the price, She'll let you deep inside. But there's a secret garden she hides."

"Blind faith in your leaders, or in anything, will get you killed."

"And she was blinded by the light. Cut loose like a deuce, Another runner in the night. Blinded by the light. She got down but she never got tight, but she'll make it alright."

"Mama always told me not to look into the eyes of the sun. But Mama, that's where the fun is ..."

"I stood stonelike at midnight, suspended in my masquerade. I combed my hair till it was just right and commanded the night brigade. I was open to pain and crossed by the rain and I walked on a crooked crutch. I strolled all alone through a fallout zone and came out with my soul untouched."

"And your strength is devastating in the face of all these odds. Remember how I kept you waiting when it was my turn to be the god."

"And we danced all night to a soul fairy band. And she kissed me just right like only a lonely angel can. She felt just right just like as sweet as a spirit in the night. In the night baby don't know what she do to you? Spirits in the night, in the night. Stand up now and let her shoot right through you."

"Did you hear the cops finally busted Madame Marie for tellin' fortunes better than they do? For me this boardwalk life is through, babe. You ought to quit this scene too."

"Rosalita jump a little lighter. Senorita come sit by my fire. I just want to be your love, ain't no lie. Rosalita you're my stone desire."

"Now I know your mama she don't like me 'cause I play in a rock and roll band. And I know your daddy he don't dig me but he never did understand. Papa lowered the boom, he locked you in your room; I'm comin' to lend a hand. I'm comin' to liberate you, confiscate you, I want to be your man. Someday we'll look back on this and it will all seem funny."

"Don't run back inside Darling you know just what I'm here for. So you're scared and you're thinking That maybe we ain't that young anymore. Show a little faith, there's magic in the night; You ain't a beauty but hey you're all right. Oh and that's all right with me."

"Hey what else can we do now? Except roll down the window And let the wind blow back your hair. Well the night's busting open, These two lanes will take us anywhere. We got one last chance to make it real, To trade in these wings on some wheels. Climb in back, heaven's waiting on down the tracks. Oh come take my hand, We're riding out tonight to case the promised land. Oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road. Thunder Road."

"And in the lonely cool before dawn, You hear their engines roaring on. But when you get to the porch they're gone on the wind. So Mary climb in. It's a town full of losers, And I'm pulling out of here to win."

"I'm stranded in the jungle, Taking all the heat they was giving. The night is dark but the sidewalk's bright And lined with the light of the living. From a tenement window a transistor blasts, Turn around the corner things got real quiet real fast. She hit me with a Tenth Avenue freeze-out. Tenth Avenue freeze-out."

"And the world is busting at its seams; And you're just a prisoner of your dreams. Holding on for your life 'cause you work all day To blow 'em away in the night."

"Laying here in the dark you're like an angel on my chest, Just another tramp of hearts crying tears of faithlessness. Remember all the movies, Terry, we'd go see? Trying to learn how to walk like heroes we thought we had to be. And after all this time to find we're just like all the rest, Stranded in the park and forced to confess To hiding on the backstreets, hiding on the backstreets. We swore forever friends on the backstreets until the end, Hiding on the backstreets, hiding on the backstreets."

"In the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American dream. At night we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines. Sprung from cages on Highway 9, Chrome-wheeled, fuel-injected And steppin' out over the line. Baby this town rips the bones from your back. It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap. We gotta get out while we're young, 'Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run."

"The highway's jammed with broken heroes On a last chance power drive. Everybody's out on the run tonight But there's no place left to hide. Together, Wendy, we can live with the sadness. I'll love you with all the madness in my soul. Someday girl, I don't know when we're gonna get to that place Where we really want to go and we'll walk in the sun. But till then tramps like us, baby we were born to run."

"The street's alive as secret debts are paid. Contacts made, they vanished unseen. Kids flash guitars just like switch-blades hustling for the record machine. The hungry and the hunted explode into rock'n'roll bands That face off against each other out in the street, down in Jungleland."

"Outside the street's on fire in a real death waltz Between flesh and what's fantasy and the poets down here Don't write nothing at all, they just stand back and let it all be. And in the quick of the night they reach for their moment And try to make an honest stand but they wind up wounded, not even dead Tonight in Jungleland."

"Badlands, you gotta live it everyday. Let the broken hearts stand As the price you've gotta pay. We'll keep pushin' till it's understood And these badlands start treating us good."

"Poor man want to be rich Rich man want to be king And a king ain't satisfied Till he rules everything. I want to go out tonight I want to find out what I got."

"Well, I believe in the love that you gave me I believe in the faith that can save me I believe in the hope And I pray that some day it may raise me Above these badlands"

"For the ones who had a notion, A notion deep inside, That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive."

"In the Bible Cain slew Abel and East of Eden he was cast. You're born into this life paying for the sins of somebody else's past. Daddy worked his whole life for nothing but the pain. Now he walks these empty rooms looking for something to blame. You inherit the sins, you inherit the flames. Adam raised a Cain."

"Some guys they just give up living, And start dying little by little, piece by piece. Some guys come home from work and wash up And go racin' in the street.Tonight, tonight the strip's just right. I wanna blow 'em all out of their seats. Calling out around the world, we're going racin' in the street."

"There's a dark cloud rising from the desert floor. I packed my bags and I'm heading straight into the storm. Gonna be a twister to blow everything down That ain't got the faith to stand its ground. Blow away the dreams that tear you apart, Blow away the dreams that break your heart. Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted."

"Everybody's got a hunger, a hunger they can't resist; There's so much that you want, you deserve much more than this. But if dreams came true, oh, wouldn't that be nice? But this ain't no dream we're living through tonight. Girl, you want it, you take it, you pay the price."

"Everybody's got a secret Sonny, Something that they just can't face. Some folks spend their whole lives trying to keep it; They carry it with them every step that they take. Till some day they just cut it loose. Cut it loose or let it drag 'em down Where no one asks any questions, Or looks too long in your face In the darkness on the edge of town."

"Cheap romance, it's all just a crutch. You don't want nothin' that anybody can touch. You're so afraid of being somebody's fool, Not walkin' tough baby, not walkin' cool. You walk cool, but darlin', can you walk the line? And face the ties that bind. The ties that bind, Now you can't break the ties that bind."

"Well let there be sunlight, let there be rain. Let the brokenhearted love again. Sherry we can run with our arms open before the tide"

"Now I don't know what it always was with us. We chose the words, and yeah, we drew the lines. There was just no way this house could hold the two of us. I guess that we were just too much of the same kind."

"Got a wife and kids in Baltimore Jack; I went out for a ride and I never went back. Like a river that don't know where it's flowing, I took a wrong turn and I just kept going"

"Then I got Mary pregnant and man that was all she wrote. And for my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat. We went down to the courthouse and the judge put it all to rest. No wedding day smiles no walk down the aisle, No flowers no wedding dress.That night we went down to the river. And into the river we'd dive. Oh down to the river we did ride."

"Is a dream a lie if it don't come true Or is it something worse?"