Tom Verlaine quotes

I like thinking of myself as invisible. I find it a very advantageous way to live. Unfortunately, its not the way the music business works. If you don't create some kind of public image, it gets created for you. (Tom Verlaine)
I grew up taking piano lessons and liking Wagner when I was in second grade. View quote
Tom Verlaine
It's like first grade where you make all your mistakes and people see it and yet some people see that there's something there that's really valuable. That's the way it went for more than 2 years almost 3 years of playing. View quote
Tom Verlaine
I just don't like people coming up to me and saying something. It immediately makes you become insincere. There is no way you can react to it sincerely. View quote
Tom Verlaine
You have to have that organizational principle behind the song. View quote
Tom Verlaine
All the Frank O'Hara types seem to have very little sound stuff going... it's so chatty or something. View quote
Tom Verlaine
The song Venus de Milo, the whole subject of it is Love is a drug. View quote
Tom Verlaine
I think almost every woman artist I've ever met has this ideal of being in a partnership working situation with a man, that men don't seem to share. They seem to want this ideal thing, that we'll always be together and work together. View quote
Tom Verlaine
I never liked mellow sounding guitar. View quote
Tom Verlaine
The first time I met Patti Smith was in a laundromat. We knew some of the same people, including Richard Hell. View quote
Tom Verlaine
Emily Dickinson has great sound and sense. (Tom Verlaine)
I wonder what all those Chinese poets sound like in Chinese. I like their distilled quality. View quote
Tom Verlaine
I don't see us as a big media gimmick band. We don't have a cultivated appearance or anything like Kiss. View quote
Tom Verlaine
When somebody turned me on to a Coltrane record around seventh grade, I took up saxophone. View quote
Tom Verlaine
I really don't have that much interest in stardom. View quote
Tom Verlaine
I always hated jazz guitar. I loved jazz saxophone but I hated jazz guitar. If I would buy an organ trio record I would make sure I'd buy one that did not have a guitar player on it. The sound was awful! View quote
Tom Verlaine
What's really fun is to write under different names. View quote
Tom Verlaine

Tom Verlaine

Tom Verlaine - Image
Photo: Bene Riobó, CC BY-SA 3.0
Occupation: American Musician
Born: December 13, 1949
Died: January 28, 2023
Quotes count: 17