Chet Atkins Quotes

18 quotes in 295 categories

• Once you become predictable, no one's interested anymore.
• You shape your own destiny.
• If you hear something you like, and you're halfway like the public, chances are they'll like it too.
• A long apprenticeship is the most logical way to success. The only alternative is overnight stardom, but I can't give you a formula for that.
• You want a little talent on that?
• There is a long history in country music of songs celebrating drinking and lamenting drinking. Country songs for the most part have always been heavily…
• ...Everyone has their own sound, and if you're heard enough, folks will come to recognize it. Style however, is a different thing. Try to express…
• Lenny Breau is one of the true geniuses of the guitar. I suppose he is a musician's musician. His knowledge of the instrument and the…
• Approach your guitar intelligently, and if there are limits, don't deny them. Work within your restrictions. Somethings you can do better than others, some things…
• It takes a lot of devotion and work, or maybe I should say play, because if you love it, that's what it amounts to I…
• It took me 20 years to learn I couldn't tune too well. Â And by that time I was too rich to care.
• When I was a little boy, I told my dad, 'When I grow up, I want to be a musician.' My dad said: 'You can't…
• Copying one person is stealing. Copying ten is research.
• Years from now, after I'm gone, someone will listen to what I've done and know I was here. They may not know or care who…
• Ray Cummins is my good friend and one of the best finger pickers around.
• I'll always be poor in my mind.
• Everything I've ever done was out of fear of being mediocre.
• Do it again on the next verse, and people think you meant it.

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