Ian Anderson Quotes

"It's only the giving that makes you what you are."

"Most of what I've written songs about are things that come out of the confusing emotional, spiritual and psychological period of time when you're going through puberty."

"Seek that which within lies waiting to begin the fight of your life that is everyday."

"I can never make up my mind if I'm happy being a flute player, or if I wish I were Eric Clapton."

"It's nice to be recognized, but it's not great to have it too conspicuously recognized, if you see what I mean. Gold records on the wall, or titles after your name, it's just not something... I don't feel that great about it."

"I think we always view people who make us feel uncomfortable and appear to intrude on our middle-class cozy space, we view them with, if not hostility, at least suspicion, discomfort, embarrassment."

"Touring is what you make it. I like to organise as much as possible myself."

"All the time I was playing the flute, the lines, the solos, the riffs, the construction, were based on my guitar skills. I did not play the flute to exploit its natural faculties, but I used it as a surrogate guitar."

"I feel the audience has a right to know if some of the money they're spending is going to a certain cause, and reassuring them the money is going to where it's supposed to be going."

"I was not a great guitarist, so I sold my 1960 Fender Stratocaster in exchange for a Shure Microphone, made in Chicago, and a flute."

"The flute was an alternative to being a small fish in an increasingly bigger pool filled with a number of great guitar players."

"A lot of pop music is about stealing pocket money from children."

"If Jesus Christ came back today, He and I would get into our brown corduroys and go to the nearest jean store and overturn the racks of blue denim."

"Just once I would like to persuade the audience not to wear any article of blue denim. If only they could see themselves in a pair of brown corduroys like mine instead of this awful, boring blue denim."

"I'm very much an observer and a conduit of thoughts and ideas."

"I think it's really the job of the composer, the artist, the painter, the writer to present people with options. I'm just really reflecting the thoughts and actions around me."

"I've always been fond of acoustic music."

"I've always felt that some of my best lyrics are less than three minutes long, and it's great when you can do that - be succinct and get the message across in a simple, clear idea."

"There's always going to be a little bit of autobiographical content to everything. It's how you lend some authority to what you write - you give it that weight by drawing on your direct experiences and indirect experiences from people that you know well, or a little."

"Prog didn't really go away. Just took a catnap in the late Seventies. A new generation of fans discovered it, and a whole new array of bands and solo artists took it on into the new millennium."

"I was always more interested in the ultimate live performance rather than the recording for its own sake. And, for the audience too, that thrill of - just being there."

"Our politicians may fail us, but Status Quo always delivers on the promise."

"I think the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, first of all, has got to be put into the context of being an American cultural showcase. It's there to be a museum showcase of all that's great about American music."

"The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame traditionally has had a management style that is very supportive of American talent, first and foremost, over everything else. And I think that's right and proper."

"Classical music only really came into my life in 1969. I wish I had heard classical music and church music when I was a teenager or even as a child."

"I'm all in favor of banks that play their part in community endeavors, private individuals looking for loans, people who want to start up a little business, and that's what banks are for."

"I kind of like the idea of living a rather ordinary life as a shopkeeper, and I examine that possibility as one of the outcomes of the young Gerald Bostock growing older."

"I make up my own mind in light of available facts, with my own experience and a sense of personal ethics."

"I'm really terrible with small children; they're small, noisy, irritating, damp and soggy."

"In most cases, my favorite Jethro Tull songs will be determined by how I feel about them as live performance songs, not by the recorded identity."