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People Quotes by Brian Eno

60 People quotes by Brian Eno

All People quotes Brian Eno’s page

Brian Eno describes people in post‑conflict countries as overflowing with energy, yet he says art often makes no difference and that is why it matters. He notes that lyrics can mislead listeners about a song’s meaning. He also finds it interesting how music becomes the soundtrack of everyday life.

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It's nice, I think, when people use your music for things you didn't think of.

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Not many people bought Velvet Underground LPs, but those who did, started a band.

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When people censor themselves they're just as likely to get rid of the good bits as the bad bits.

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Try to make things that can become better in other people’s minds than they were in yours.

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People who are very confident in themselves aren't hurt by criticism. They make use of it.

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Most people have no idea what something would sound like if it wasn't an MP3.

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It's amazing how quickly people get used to bad quality.

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The computer brings out the worst in some people.

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People assume that the meaning of a song is vested in the lyrics. To me, that has never been the case. There…

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I think the idea that people walk around to music is very interesting. They are actually creating the soundtrack to their lives…

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I'm always interested in what you can do with technology that people haven't thought of doing yet. I think that's sort of…

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Some people say Bowie is all surface style and second-hand ideas, but that sounds like a definition of pop to me.

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One of the things you're doing when you make art, apart from entertaining yourself and other people, is trying to see what…

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I'm very good with technology, I always have been, and with machines in general. They seem not threatening like other people find…

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Some people are very good at being 'stars' and it suits them. I'm grudging about it and I find it annoying.

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If there is a new fascism, it won't come from skinheads and punks; it will come from people who eat granola and…

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People in the arts often want to aim for the biggest, most obvious target, and hit it smack in the bull’s eye.…

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You feel as if you're not living a full life. Which, of course, is why - it's my theory about why so…

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The tools are evolving, and people's interests are evolving as well. So, suddenly people like to hear bands, people like Devendra Banhart…

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People like Frank Zappa and Bryan Ferry knew we could pick and choose from the history of music, stick things together looking…

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It's insane that, since the Beatles and Dylan, it's assumed that all musicians should do everything themselves. It's that ridiculous, teenage idea…

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Pop music can absorb so many peculiar talents, ranging from the completely nonmusical poseur who just uses music as a kind of…

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Except in a few cases like Music for Airports, which was a very clear case of noticing a niche [and] saying, "Okay,…

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The whole point of art, as far as I’m concerned, is that art doesn’t make any difference. And that’s why it’s important.…

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I wish there was a serious investigation into flying saucers that wasn't conducted by crackpots. Unfortunately nearly all of the people who…

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When I was at art college, the teachers who helped me were not the ones I agreed with, or the ones who…

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I hate the thought that someone had picked up one of my song records and was really excited about it, and walks…

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I still do mostly listen to CDs. I think that every format really is a different way of listening. If you take…

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I think that's very significant that we're so attached to the idea now of - it was something I advocated for years,…

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People always focus on people like me who use synthesizers, right, which are explicitly electronic and therefore obvious. "Ah, yes, that's electronic…

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I had an interesting day. I was in the studio with a group of musicians, who shall remain nameless, and I said…

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Lyrics are always misleading because they make people think that that's what the music is about.

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In the 1960s, people were trying to get away from the pop song format. Tracks were getting longer, or much, much shorter.

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What people call unemotional just doesnt have a single overriding emotion to it. The things that I like best are the ones…

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I have a definite talent for convincing people to try something new. I am a good salesman. When I'm on form, I…

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People do dismiss ambient music, don't they? They call it 'easy listening,' as if to suggest that it should be hard to…

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It must be quite mysterious to some people why I bother to carry on. Because, you know, I don't sell that many…

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I love San Francisco and Brighton has something of San Francisco about it. It's by the sea, there's a big gay community,…

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I think, if you spend a day or - as many people do - a life working only with that aspect of…

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The most important thing in a piece of music is to seduce people to the point where they start searching.

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More by Brian Eno

I have lived in countries that were coming out of conflict: Ireland, South Africa, the Czech republic. People there are overflowing with energy.

The lyrics are constructed as empirically as the music. I don't set out to say anything very important.

Admirers can be a tremendous force for conservatism.

The whole history of pop music had rested on the first person singular, with occasional intrusions of the second person singular.

You can't really imagine music without technology.

Robert Fripp and I will be recording another LP very soon. It should be even more monotonous than the first one!

I despise computers in many ways. I think they’re hopelessly underevolved and overrated.

I think very often producers are really trying to repeat things. When they hear something in the new songs that they recognize as being…

I think that's very significant that we're so attached to the idea now of - it was something I advocated for years, that you…

If you watch any good player, they're using different parts of their body and working with instruments that respond to those movements. They're moving…

Songs that don't depend on composition depend instead on performance - so the fire has to be there in the playing.

I can see the use and value of religion, just as I can see the use of mud wrestling, yoga, astronomy and sadomasochism. but…

I wanted to get rid of the element that had been considered essential in pop music: the voice.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the ambition of the great painters was to make paintings that were like music, which was then…

I had an interesting day. I was in the studio with a group of musicians, who shall remain nameless, and I said to them…