Musicians

"I was a depressive and self-destructive alcoholic, but I was lucky enough to meet the program of Alcoholics Anonymous and be rescued by it 15 years ago."

"For three years I was immersed in a depression, I did not know how to assimilate the loss of my voice, which was a reality."

"Those who have had the opportunity to be rescued from an addiction, whatever it is, we are obliged to talk about this and work together to let people know how to get out of it."

"The couples I married, I never chose them, they did."

"Well, I like people a lot. I could define myself as a pacific being, a lover of nature, music and people. The qualities that I admire the most in the human being is the capacity of getting along with its similars in holy peace."

"What I hate the most in the world is injustice. Unfortunately, there is a lot of injustice in the world. Once we understood the mission that God gave us in this earth that is to sing to love, try to repeat his word, spread his word, because there is no other thing that we do but sing to love, tell people to be happy. Not to hurt each other, hit each other, kill each other."

"Me gusta el sol, Alicia y las palomas, el buen cigarro y la guitarra española, saltar paredes y abrir las ventanas y cuando llora una mujer. Me gusta el vino tanto como las flores y los conejos pero no los tractores, el pan casero y la voz de Dolores y el mar mojándome los pies, no soy de aqui ni soy de allá no tengo edad ni porvenir y ser felíz es mi color de identidad."

"I am a sensitive person, so it is actually saddening to learn that these poverty-stricken families are most of the time mistreated or looked down upon. Help the poor, like how you would want to be helped if you were in their position."

"Sometimes, opening up your eyes and realising what you have – no matter how little you think – helps you find yourself."

"Don’t let life pass you by before you realise that it was worth living."

"Stay in the middle, don't get pushed to the side, every chance that's worth taking, is a chance worth the fight"

"Her name is Melissa Kaplan, I've worked with her a lot and I designed the tracks with her voice in mind."

"I think that you have to seriously have fun, or taking serious things in a light way and obviously, for me, before all, music is made of fun and pleasure and excitement."

"At a very early stage I realised that it's a real problem to perform electronic music on stage because electronic instruments are not particularly convincing on a visual point of view: somebody behind his computer, it's not particularly visual. So I was inspired by the opera. And what was the opera in the 19th century? It was the idea for a musician to join and to work, to collaborate with a stage director, with carpenters, painters, people doing decors, graphic artists to have a visual prolongation, a visual correspondence to their work. That's what I tried to do with the tools of my generation: electronics and video and lights and all that."

"The mind is like a sea, few are those who dare sail, most stand on the shore and watch. Artist pages. (A.S.)"

"The Blues is an acoustic tear."

"When you have a full bouquet you can't sit back and smell each flower."

"Once, my wife would make me coffee. These days, she hardly puts the kettle on."

"when a fool fails he says I was unlucky, when a wise man fails he says what a fool I had been. Song "If I was a Cat" live version."

"A cup of kindness is better than a whole bottle of mercy can be."

"Inside every widow there's a spider that weaves it's webs in the corners of her heart."

"So many lovers, yet there is no love."

"Dry bones make good flutes"

"Rain was the nemesis of the snow, and the snow for the flowers. I Answer as if Someone Really Meant to Ask, Birds of the Mind and Chameleons of the Heart (1978)."

"To bend down for money is OK, but to bow is not."

"If I had plenty, I'd be content with what I have."

"In Jerusalem, even the silence speaks. In Jerusalem, the Skies are Lower"

"If you count the thorns, the flower disappears."

"If the Blues were wine, I'd be drunk all the time."

"In Jerusalem, the skies are closer."

"Mama Rhino cries out loud, his nose is always the issue, every time he wipes his nose, he rips apart the tissue."

"Words flow under a bridge of silence."

"The blind man sits in the dark, but for guests he turns on the light."

"Avrai tu l'universo, resti l'Italia a me."

"Giuseppe Verdi was never a theoretician or academic, though he was quite able to write a perfectly poised fugue if he felt inclined. What makes him, with Puccini, the most popular of all opera composers is the ability to dream up glorious melodies with an innate understanding of the human voice, to express himself directly, to understand how the theatre works, and to score with technical brilliance, colour and originality."

"Gli artisti veramente superiori giudicano senza pregiudizi di scuole, di nazionalità, di tempo. Se gli artisti del Nord e del Sud hanno tendenze diverse, è bene siano diverse."

"Tornate all'antico e sarà un progresso."

"Io non posso ammettere, né nei cantanti, né nei direttori la facoltà di creare, che come dissi prima, è un principio che conduce all'abisso."

"Io…vorrei che il giovane quando si mette a scrivere, non pensasse mai ad essere né melodista, né realista, né idealista, né avvenirista, né tutti i diavoli che si portino queste pedanterie. La melodia e l’armonia non devono essere che mezzi nella mano dell'artista per fare della Musica, e se verrà un giorno in cui non si parlerà più né di melodia né di armonia né di scuole tedesche, italiane, né di passato né di avvenire ecc. ecc. ecc. allora forse comincierà il regno dell'arte."

"Copiare il vero può essere una buona cosa, ma inventare il vero è meglio, molto meglio."

"Si rinunci per moda, per smania di novità, per affettazione di scienza, si rinneghi l'arte nostra, il nostro istinto, quel nostro fare sicuro spontaneo naturale sensibile abbagliante di luce, è assurdo e stupido."

"I thought I'd write you a lovesong And I sang it to you over the phone"

"Why do I always bang my head against the wall So sick and tired of doing, doing everything wrong"

"[When asked if he has a favorite woodland creature]"

"I think I should be in a [Disney animated] film called ‘Space Shrews’. Where I go to space. With a load of shrews. And nothing really happens. We just get out and have a lolly and then come back. But it’ll be a musical [...] the ship will be built out of my own hair."

"[When asked if he sees the future with people wearing shirts with his face on it]"

"I'd like to punch out a really old lady. There'd be no repercussions."

"[When asked if he varies the animals in his comedy depending on where he performs]"

"I don’t think I’d have done comedy if I was born eighty years ago [...] I’d have been a lord. Shooting people that were on my land [...] With a wig, yeah. And some crisps."

"I've always had my suspicions about moss."