| The Quotable David Bowie | |||||
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| David Bowie's Famous Lines | |||||
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| David Bowie Quotes |
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(in 1976 interview with Playboy) It`s true - I am a bisexual. But I can`t deny that I`ve used that fact very well. I suppose it`s the best thing that ever happened to me. Fun, too. I re-invented my image so many times that I`m in denial that I was originally an overweight Korean woman. I rate Morrissey (Steven Patrick Morrissey) as one of the best lyricists in Britain. For me, he`s up there with Bryan Ferry. [from 1983] I get offered so many bad movies. And they`re all raging queens or transvestites or Martians. I`m an instant star; just add water. (on media manipulation) Christ, everything is a media manipulation. I'd love to enter politics. I will one day. I'd adore to be Prime Minister. And, yes, I believe very strongly in fascism. The only way we can speed up the sort of liberalism that's hanging foul in the air at the moment is to speed up the progress of a right-wing, totally dictatorial tyranny and get it over as fast as possible. People have always responded with greater efficiency under a regimental leadership. A liberal wastes time saying, "Well, now, what ideas have you got?" Show them what to do, for God's sake. If you don't, nothing will get done. I can't stand people just hanging about. Television is the most successful fascist, needless to say. Rock stars are fascists, too. Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars. I know about Kylie (Kylie Minogue) and Robbie (Robbie Williams) and `Pop Idol` and stuff like that. You can`t get away from that when you hit the [British] shore, so I know all about the cruise ship entertainment aspect of British pop. [during an interview about his new album in 1999] I have nothing to say about the new album. Can I go now? Talking about art is like dancing about architecture. I gave up smoking six months before I had the heart attack - so that was worth it, wasn`t it! I started to give up when my daughter was born because I wouldn`t smoke in the house with her there so I had to go outside. It`s bloody cold in winter in New York, so I just quit. I once asked [John] Lennon what he thought of what I do. He said `it`s great, but its just rock and roll with lipstick on`. (On Syd Barrett) The few times I saw him perform in London at UFO and the Marquee clubs during the `60s will forever be etched in my mind. He was so charismatic and such a startlingly original songwriter. Also, along with Anthony Newley, he was the first guy I`d heard to sing pop or rock with a British accent. His impact on my thinking was enormous. A major regret is that I never got to know him. A diamond indeed. (Asked whether he thinks he is a good actor) I took you in, didn`t I? I rest my make-up case. You would think that a rock star being married to a super-model would be one of the greatest things in the world. It is. (on being 50) Fab. But, you know, I don`t feel fifty. I feel not a day over forty-nine. It`s incredible. I`m bouncy, I feel bouncy. [on getting an honorary degree from Boston`s Berklee College of Music] Any list of advice I have to offer to a musician always ends with, `If it itches, go and see a doctor. My brother Terry's in an asylum right now. I'd like to believe that the insanity is because our family is all genius, but I'm afraid that's not true. Some of them, a good many, are just nobodies. I'm quite fond of the insanity, actually. It's a nice thing to throw out at parties, don't you think? Everybody finds empathy in a nutty family. Everybody says, "Oh, yes, my family is quite mad." Mine really is. No fucking about, boy. Most of them are nutty—in, just out of or going into an institution. Or dead. I`m looking for backing for an unauthorized auto-biography that I am writing. Hopefully, this will sell in such huge numbers that I will be able to sue myself for an extraordinary amount of money and finance the film version in which I will play everybody. (1992) It would be my guess that Madonna is not a very happy woman. From my own experience, having gone through persona changes like that, that kind of clawing need to be the center of attention is not a pleasant place to be. (On his pop sound during the 1980s) When I performed I was thinking, you all look like you should be seeing Phil Collins. Then I thought, hang on, I sound like Phil Collins. So I`ve changed. I`m not comfortable with the mainstream thing. I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human. I don`t know how many times someone has come up to me and said, `Hey, Lets dance!` I hate dancing. God, it`s stupid. When I started writing, I couldn't put more than three or four words together. Now I think I write very well. I'm finding that if I just look at something and think, A man did that, I realize I can do it, too. And probably better. I didn't know anything about films, either. I mean, nothing at all. So I went out, got hold of a lot of the greatest films and worked it all out for myself. Very logically done. Now I have an excellent knowledge of the art. I became a bloody good actor, I'll tell you. And I'll be a superb film maker as well. It's only a matter of deciding what you want to do. You can neither win nor lose if you don`t run the race. When you think about it, Adolf Hitler was the first pop star. When I heard Little Richard, I mean, it just set my world on fire. I really wanted Norman Rockwell to do an album cover for me. Still do. I originally wanted him for the cover of Young Americans. I got his phone number and called him up. Very quaint. His wife answered and I said, "Hello, this is David Bowie," and so on. I asked if he could paint the cover. His wife said in this quavering, elderly voice, "I'm sorry, but Norman needs at least six months for his portraits." So I had to pass, but I thought the experience was lovely. What a craftsman. Too bad I don't have the same painstaking passion. I'd rather just get my ideas out of my system as fast as I can. When Brian and I came back together this time, we found that we`d gone through very similar psychological states during the course of the `80s. What is very enlightening for me right now is that I sense that I`m arriving at a place of peace with my writing that I`ve never experienced before. Tony Visconti and I had been wanting to work together again for a few years now. Both of us had fairly large commitments and for a long time we couldn`t see a space in which we could get anything together. The unfortunate thing is that I've always wanted to be a film director. And the two media got unconsciously amalgamated, so I was doing films on record. That creates your basic concept album, which becomes a bit of a slow pack horse in the end. Now I know that if I'm going to make albums, I've got to make albums that I enjoy musically, or else just make the fucking film. A lot of my concept albums, like Aladdin Sane, Ziggy and Diamond Dogs, were only 50 percent there. They should have been visual as well. I think that some of the most talented actors around are in rock. I think a whole renaissance in film making is gonna come from rock. Not because of it, though, despite it. To not be modest about it, you`ll find that with only a couple of exceptions, most of the musicians that I`ve worked with have done their best work by far with me. There, in the chords and melodies, is everything I want to say. The words just jolly it along. It`s always been my way of expressing what for me is inexpressible by any other means. The truth is of course is that there is no journey. We are arriving and departing all at the same time. I love disco. It's a lovely escapist's way out. I quite like it, as long as it's not on the radio night and day—which it is so much these days. Fame was an incredible bluff that worked. Very flattering. I'll do anything until I fail. And when I succeed, I quit, too. I'm really knocked out that people actually dance to my records, though. But let's be honest; my rhythm and blues are thoroughly plastic. Young Americans, the album Fame is from, is, I would say, the definitive plastic soul record. It's the squashed remains of ethnic music as it survives in the age of Muzak rock, written and sung by a white limey. If you had played Young Americans to me five years ago and said, "This is an R&B album," I would have laughed. Hysterically. Strangely, some songs you really don`t want to write. Sometimes you stumble across a few chords that put you in a reflective place. Pixies and Sonic Youth were so important to the eighties. Oh, listen, it's very easy to be a mime. There wasn't much competition. I was only reasonably good. My technique was quite poor, actually, but nobody really knew. I've got a very good body and it does things I want it to do, but I'm still not disciplined enough to ever compete with a Marcel Marceau. Mime helped me learn a lot about body language. That's all. On the other hand, what I like my music to do to me is awaken the ghosts inside of me. Not the demons, you understand, but the ghosts. Nearly all the synth work on Heathen is mine and some of the piano. It amazes me sometimes that even intelligent people will analyze a situation or make a judgement after only recognizing the standard or traditional structure of a piece. (asked if he ever relaxes) If you're asking whether or not I take vacations, the answer is no. I find all my relaxation within the context of work; I'm very serious about that. I've always thought the only thing to do was to try to go through life as Superman, right from the word go. I felt far too insignificant as just another person. I couldn't exist thinking all that was important was to be a good person. I thought, Fuck that; I don't want to be just another honest Joe. I want to be a supersuperbeing and improve all the equipment that I've been given to where it works 300 percent better. I find that it's possible to do it. I`ve never responded well to entrenched negative thinking. I`m not a prophet or a stone aged man, just a mortal with potential of a superman. I`m living on. I`m just an individual who doesn`t feel that I need to have somebody qualify my work in any particular way. I`m working for me. I lived out of the dustbins on the back streets of Carnaby. Carnaby Street was actually, at one time, quite fashionable—before it became known to everybody in London. The very best young designers were down there and because they were very expensive Italians, if any of the shirts had a button off or anything like that, it would go in the dustbin. We'd go around and nick all the stuff out of the dustbins. Entire wardrobes of clothes for, well, nothing. All you had to do was sew a button on or stitch a sleeve. I remember when I used to steal everything. Had to look fashionable. We all were caught up in that game of wanting to be the next Elvis Presley, hopping from tinny band to tinny band. I went through a group called David Jones and the Buzz, another called David Jones and the Lower Third, even a mime troupe called Feathers. I`m always amazed that peole take what I say seriously. I don`t even take what I am seriously. I went through all the musicians in my life who I admire as bright, intelligent, virtuosic players. I wanted to prove the sustaining power of music. I think Mick Jagger would be astounded and amazed if he realized that to many people he is not a sex symbol, but a mother image. I think it all comes back to being very selfish as an artist. I mean, I really do just write and record what interests me and I do approach the stage shows in much the same way. I write songs and screenplays and poems, I paint, I do Kurlien photography, I manage myself, I act, I produce, I record, sometimes I tour. I could give you five new and unreleased David Bowie albums right now. I could just hand them over. I've got an incredible backlog of material. Work, work, work. . . . I never could get over the fact that The Pixies formed, worked and separated without America taking them to its heart or even recognizing their existence for the most part. I had to resign myself, many years ago, that I`m not too articulate when it comes to explaining how I feel about things. But my music does it for me, it really does. I felt I really wanted to back off from music completely and just work within the visual arts in some way. I started painting quite passionately at that time. I don`t know where I`m going from here, but I promise it won`t be boring. I believe that I often bring out the best in somebody`s talents. Heathenism is a state of mind. You can take it that I'm referring to one who does not see his world. He has no mental light. He destroys almost unwittingly. He cannot feel any Gods presence in his life. He is the 21st century man. But I've got to think of myself as the luckiest guy. Robert Johnson only had one album's worth of work as his legacy. That's all that life allowed him. I saw the sax line-up that he had behind him and I thought, I'm going to learn the saxophone. When I grow up, I'm going to play in his band. So I sort of persuaded my dad to get me a kind of a plastic saxophone on the hire purchase plan. What, moneywise? Oh, Lord, no—we made nothing. All I've made is an impact and a change, which, of course, is worth a lot. I keep telling myself that. The best thing to say about it all is that it's archetypal rock-'n'- roll business. Read the reports of the Beatles, the Stones and a lot of other big entertainers and take some kind of amalgamation of all that; it's a pretty accurate picture of my business. John Lennon has been through it all. John told me, "Stick with it. Survive. You'll really go through the grind and they'll rip you off right and left. The key is to come out the other side." I said something cocky at the time like, "I've got a great manager. Everything is great. I'm a Seventies artist." The last time I spoke to John, I told him he was right. I'd been ripped off blind. Rock 'n' roll is acting. All my albums are just me acting out certain poses and characters. That's why I'm not entirely proud of a lot of my records—the visual side is sorely missed. My finally being on film simply makes it official. I'm sure I'll take my following with me. They're very faithful. (why he decided to do The Man Who Fell to Earth) Well, I'll tell you what happened. I was sent the script and was immediately intrigued with the character of Newton, who had a lot in common with me. He dreaded cars but loved fast speeds. He was physically emaciated; there were so many characteristics we had in common. One problem: I hated the script. Nicolas Roeg, the director, came over to my house a number of weeks after he'd sent the script. He arrived on time and I was out. After eight hours or so, I remembered our appointment. I turned up nine hours later, thinking, of course, that he'd gone. He was sitting in the kitchen. He'd been sitting there for hours and hours and wouldn't go upstairs, wouldn't go into my room. He stayed in the kitchen. God, I was so embarrassed. I thought I would be embarrassed into doing the film. He said, "Well, David, what do you think of the script?" I said, "It's a bit corny, isn't it?" His face just fucking fell off. Then he started talking. Two or three hours later, I was convinced the man was a genius. There is a very strong story line, as it turns out, but that only provides the backbone to the meat of it. It works on spiritual and prime levels of an incredibly complex, Howard Hughes-type alien. I still don't understand all the inflections Roeg put into the film. He's of a certain artistic level that's well above me. (on how long it took to get used to film cameras) Less than an hour. My first film, I couldn't have worked with a director unless it was somebody I knew instinctively would become a mentor. I couldn't have worked with someone I considered to be less than myself—and I have a very, very high opinion of my own abilities. Within the first hour on the set, I knew that I'd picked the right one. Just wait until I become a director, though. I'll be tremendous. |
| Quotes About David Bowie |
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Movie/TV title: Labyrinth
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