Neil Peart Quotes

I hear the sound of gunfire at the prison gate, Are the liberators here?
Do I hope or do I fear?
For my father and my brother, it’s too late but I must help my mother stand up straight.
Are we the last ones left alive?
Are we the only human beings to survive? -- Red Sector A (1984)

Anarchist reactionary, running-dog revisionist
Hindu, Muslim, Catholic creation, evolutionist
Rational, romantic, mystic, cynical, idealist
Minimal expressionist, post-modern neo-symbolist Armchair rocket scientist, graffiti existentialist
Deconstruction primitive performance photo-realist
Be-bop or a one-drop or a hip-hop, lite-pop-metallist
Gold adult contemporary, urban country capitalist -- You Bet Your Life (1991)

Some are born to move the world, to live their fantasies
But most of us just dream about the things we'd like to be
Sadder still to watch it die, then never to have known it
For you, the blind who once could see
The bell tolls for thee... -- Losing It (1982)

The world weighs on my shoulders
But what am I to do?
You sometimes drive me crazy
But I worry about you
I know it makes no difference
To what you’re going through
But I see the tip of the iceberg
And I worry about you... -- Distant Early Warning (1984)

No hero in your tragedy,
No daring in your escape,
No salutes for your surrender,
Nothing noble in your fate,
Christ, what have you done? -- The Pass (1989)

Cast in this unlikely role
Ill-equipped to act
With insufficient tact
One must put up barriers
To keep oneself intact -- Limelight (1981)

Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone
Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone -- Subdivisions (1982)

It takes a little more persistence to get up and go the distance
I'm not giving in
I'm not missing out
I'm not giving up on implausible dreams -- The Enemy Within (Part I of 'Fear') (1984)

I feel the sense of possibilities
I feel the wrench of hard realities
The focus is sharp in the city -- The Camera Eye (1981)

Miracles will have their claimers
More will bow to Rome
He and she are in the house
But there's only me at home. -- Anagram (For Mongo) (1989)

The middle aged madonna
calls her neighbor on the phone.
Day by day, the seasons pass
and leave her life alone.
But she'll go walking out that door
on some bright afternoon
to go and paint big cities
from a lonely attic room. -- Middletown Dreams (1985)

You move me, you move me.
with your buildings and your eyes
Autumn woods and Winter skies.
You move me, you move me.
Open sea and city lights, busy streets and dizzy heights.
You call me, you call me. -- The Analog Kid (1982)

Faith is cold as ice.
Why are little ones born only to suffer
for the want of immunity, or a bowl of rice?
Well, who would hold a price on the heads of the innocent children
if there's some immortal power to control the dice? -- Roll The Bones (1991)

Today is different, and tomorrow the same.
It's hard to take the world the way that it came.
Too many rapids keep us sweeping along.
Too many captains keep on steering us wrong.
It's hard to take the heat.
It's hard to lay blame.
To fight the fire, while we're feeding the flames. -- Second Nature (1987)

I'm not looking back, but I want to look around me now. -- Time Stand Still (1987)