All Greil Marcus Quotes
- Elvis transcends his talent to the point of dispensing with it altogether. Altogether
- Rock 'n' Roll is a combination of good ideas dried up by fads, terrible junk, hideous failings in taste and judgment, gullibility and manipulation, moments… Clarity
- No failure in America, whether of love or money, is ever simple; it is always a kind of betrayal, of a mass of shadowy, shared… America
- I was the first records editor at Rolling Stone, and there were no rules. There was nothing to fall back on as to how do… Absolutely
- What's the impulse behind art? It's saying in whatever language is the language of your work, “If I could move you as much as it… Anyone
- We make the oldest stories new when we succeed, and we are trapped by the old stories when we fail Fail
- It may be that the most interesting American struggle is the struggle to set oneself free from the limits one is born to, and then… American
- Listening is like running down a mountain on a switchback trail, the sound of surprise generating its own momentum. There’s a punk glee inside the… Bluegrass
- We fight our way through the massed and leveled collective safe taste of the Top 40, just looking for a little something we can call… Beat
- I had tremendous fun fooling around with the way people talked about songs, just the way that became another way of understanding the world. Another Way
- I want another idea, another project, but you can't make them up. They show up. Another Idea
- Patriotism in America, as I understand it, is a matter of suffering, when the country fails to live up to its promises, or actively betrays… Actively
- You're going to react to a painting in a way that the painting demands you react. Demand
- Bob Dylan continues to release odd and unsettling records, and to do odd and unsettling things on stage. So the term 'still' seems meaningless to… Answer
- Farber had a huge effect on me as a writer. I don't mean I write like him. Farber is, first of all, a great stylist,… All
- Hearing things like 'Wake Up' by Lora Logic, or the Raincoats' 'In Love' - that was something I wasn't prepared for. I couldn't hear anything… Absolutely
- I learned that when something just has to be said to move the discussion along, or broaden it or deepen it, if I can just… Along
- I never find myself even catching lyrics until something in the sound has taken me captive. Thinking about anything else is just the pleasurable byproduct… Anything Else
- If 'Mystery Train' is my Nixon book and 'Lipstick Traces' my Reagan book, 'Invisible Republic' is my Bill Clinton book. I really liked Clinton. He… All
- The Sixties are most generously described as a time when people took part - when they stepped out of themselves and acted in public, as… Acted
- I never could understand - it was impossible for me to get my head around - what the furor was, what the sense of betrayal… Anger
- Along with a lot of other things, becoming a Bob Dylan fan made me a writer. I was never interested in figuring out what the… Along
- What always attracted me to [Bob] Dylan, and what has sustained me as a Dylan listener, or has always continued to surprise me, is his… Always Attracted
- I am a critic who is pulled toward history. But Bob Dylan himself is a great historian. He is an historian who acts out history.… Acts
- Think about how rare it is for anyone to encounter a teacher who can open you up to the notion that there is an infinite… Amount