Neil Peart Quotes

You don't get something for nothing
You can't have freedom for free.
You won't get wise
With the sleep still in your eyes
No matter what your dream might be. -- Something for Nothing (1976)

The first time reggae music really got into my soul — I'll never forget, it was the Bob Marley song 'Natural Mystic,' just sitting in a car hearing it — and I suddenly got it. I got what reggae was all about.

I define my approach to each day I am given as, "What is the most excellent thing I can do today?" – from the book "Far and Near: On Days Like These"

I was in a village in Togo in West Africa, travelling by bicycle, and I heard this rhythm echoing across the valley — just two drummers with hand drums — and it engraved itself on my mind and became a huge influence on me rhythmically.

Music is certainly about sharing your enthusiasm. We love our music, and we hope other people will like it too — there's nothing more calculated than that about it.

Danger plus survival equals fun. --From A Work in Progress

We opened for Aerosmith like 40 times and never got a sound check. If you name any band from the mid-'70s, we probably opened for them.

All the busy little creatures
chasing out their destinies.
Living in their pools
they soon forget about the sea... -- Natural Science (1980)

I tend to write for a general reader — my ideal audience is someone curious and intelligent who doesn't know anything about my preoccupations — in the same way that songwriting is for an imaginary listener.

Everything in moderation, with occasional excess -- Ghost Rider (2002)

How can anybody be enlightened?
Truth is after all so poorly lit -- Turn The Page (1987)

All the same we take our chances,
Laughed at by time, tricked by circumstances,
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose,
The more that things change, the more they stay the same. -- Circumstances (1978)

I wanted to read every book ever written.

Every audience, I feel like we have to earn them — we have to earn their dedication and their expenditure of time and energy and money to be there every single time, every show. It's an old show-business thing, but I really feel you're only as good as your last show.

We each pay a fabulous price
For our visions of paradise
But a spirit with a vision is a dream
With a mission -- Mission (1987)