Nile Rodgers quotes

Nile Rodgers is an American musician, songwriter, and producer renowned for his influential work in pop, funk, and disco. Co-founder of the band Chic, his innovative guitar style shaped countless hit songs and collaborations with major artists. He continues to impact the music industry with his creative vision and prolific career. Here are 20 of his quotes:

If I could live in one city and do every single thing I do there, I would choose Venice. You can't turn your head without seeing something amazing.

Nile Rodgers

I'm always swimming forward like a shark. You just keep going and you don't rest. I love waking up knowing that I have a problem to solve.

Nile Rodgers

If something is worth doing, it's worth overdoing.

Nile Rodgers

Almost all the producers I know and dig, like Quincy Jones or Brian Eno, are really musicians first. I'm a composer, an orchestrator, an arranger and a musician first. I know how to write and rewrite songs, and the genius is really in the rewriting.

Nile Rodgers

I would play hooky from school and spend all day in the movie theaters. Consequently, I learned satire in all its subtle forms.

Nile Rodgers

With Sumthin Else Music Works, I wanted to spread the love and give newcomers a chance to make it because something that really helped me were all the people who had given me an opportunity when I was putting my career together.

Nile Rodgers

Bands always call me when they are in need of a boost and I come in and put them back on top.

Nile Rodgers

Art, well good art at least, takes you to a place you go during the experience of it, and then after you experience it you are different.

Nile Rodgers

It feels like my job is to support people. I support great artists. When I worked with a symphony, I sat in the third chair, not the first chair.

Nile Rodgers

Art is something that opens up and enhances your emotions and that's what I like to think I'm doing.

Nile Rodgers

Trust me, the only real way to understand 'Chic' is in highfalutin terms. Our chord progressions were based on European modal melodies. I made those early 'Chic' records to impress my jazz friends.

Nile Rodgers

I am very rich because of 'Chic' - artistically as well as spiritually. It's been an amazing life.

Nile Rodgers

I'd probably be a super wealthy guy if I had sat around writing songs and getting them placed like everyone else I know. But I write songs about people or after I meet them and they're somewhat biographical - they're fiction but also non-fiction.

Nile Rodgers

My childhood was bittersweet in many ways. We moved around a lot. By the time I was 10, I had travelled thousands of miles, often on my own. My parents were like my friends, so it felt like I didn't really have parents at all. But in a crazy way that was very liberating. It forced me to be independent, maybe a leader, and certainly a survivor.

Nile Rodgers

The only person I have regrets about is Miles Davis. He and I had become good friends after we did a photo shoot, and coincidentally, we kept running into each other at parties and stuff. I regret not having written a hit for Miles Davis.

Nile Rodgers

I grew up in the era of the concept album. What I do now is pick up on singles, and they are their own complete stories; you don't necessarily have to hear the rest of the album because I don't think albums are created like that anymore. They get songs from all over the place.

Nile Rodgers

Everything about my life was culturally rich, and all the people I met sort of reinforced the wackiness that was normally inside of me. No one said, 'You can't do that,' until I got to real record companies, that is.

Nile Rodgers

I've had insomnia since I was five years old. I just don't require much sleep. I'm never tired.

Nile Rodgers