David Bowie Quotes

Fame can take interesting men and thrust mediocrity upon them. If I hadn't learned how to be a musician and writer, it wouldn't have mattered what I did. I never knew too many rock people. I would get to a place, some nightclub or other, and see all these famous rockers bonding.

I'm an instant star, just add water.

Blackstar, two days before his death. And interestingly, that record was a kind of self-interview — Bowie’s most fearless and open of them all, wherein he answers the ultimate hard question “What is it like to be dying?” — and reveals in poetic detail what had meaning to him in his life … while addressing his audience with a certain innate gratitude as he says goodbye.

I needed to sing because nobody else was singing my songs.

Frankly, I mean, sometimes the interpretations I've seen on some of the songs that I've written are a lot more interesting than the input that I put in.

Cause I'd rather stay here
With all the madmen
Than perish with the sadmen roaming free
And I'd rather play here
With all the madmen
For I'm quite content they're all as sane
As me.

- All the Madmen

Saying more and feeling less Saying no but meaning yes This is all I ever meant That's the message that I sent

BOWIE: I change my mind a lot. I usually don’t agree with what I say very much. I’m an awful liar. (...)
I’m not sure whether it is me changing my mind, or whether I lie a lot. It’s somewhere between the two. I don’t exactly lie, I change my mind all the time. People are always throwing things at me that I’ve said and I say that I didn’t mean anything. You can’t stand still on one point for your entire life.

Pushing through the market square,
So many mothers sighing.
News had just come over,
We had five years left to cry in.
News guy wept and told us,
Earth was really dying.
Cried so much his face was wet,
then I knew he was not lying.

I heard telephones, opera house, favourite melodies.
I saw boys, toys, electric irons and T.V.s.
My brain hurt like a warehouse,
It had no room to spare.
I had to cram so many things
To store everything in there.
And all the fat-skinny people.
And all the tall-short people.
And all the nobody people.
And all the somebody people.
I never thought I'd need so many people.

A girl my age went off her head,
hit some tiny children.
If the black hadn't a-pulled her off,
I think she would have killed them.
A soldier with a broken arm
Fixed his stare to the wheel of a Cadillac.
A cop knelt and kissed the feet of a priest,
and a queer threw up at the sight of that.

I think I saw you in an ice-cream parlour,
Drinking milk shakes cold and long.
Smiling and waving and looking so fine,
Don't think you knew you were in this song.

And it was cold and it rained so I felt like an actor,
And I thought of Ma and I wanted to get back there.
Your face, your race, the way that you talk,
I kiss you, you're beautiful, I want you to walk.

We've got five years,
Stuck on my eyes.
Five years,
What a surprise!
We've got five years,
My brain hurts a lot.
Five years,
That's all we've got.

- Five Years

If I could control tomorrow's haze,
The darkened shore wouldn't bother me,
If I can't control the web we weave,
My life will be lost in the fallen leaves...

- No Control

I don't know where I'm going from here, but I promise it won't be boring.

If our love song
Could fly over mountains,
Could laugh at the ocean,
Just like the films,
There's no reason
To feel all the hard times,
To lay down the hard lines.
It's absolutely true.<p>Nothing much could happen
Nothing we can't shake
Oh we're absolute beginners
With nothing much at stake
As long as you're still smiling
There's nothing more I need
I absolutely love you
But we're absolute beginners.
But if my love is your love
We're certain to succeed.

Sometimes I don't feel as if I'm a person at all. I'm just a collection of other people's ideas.

Do you remember, your President Nixon?
Do you remember, the bills you have to pay?
Or even yesterday?

Still don't know what I was waiting for
And my time was running wild.
A million dead-end streets and
Every time I thought I'd got it made
It seemed the taste was not so sweet.
So I turned myself to face me
But I've never caught a glimpse
Of how the others must see the faker
I'm much too fast to take that test.