Leo Kottke Quotes

35 quotes in 528 categories

• The principle element in a performance is risk, and if you're losing interest then by scaring yourself to death the audience will feel it and…
• I was required by Capital to release one every six months and the fastest I could do with all my touring was every nine months,…
• Musically, I am still hooked and just hypnotized by the sound of the guitar itself. I mean, a guitar sounds good if you drop it…
• I do have a library of events I can talk about and I always expect to find a different point of view on it so…
• When the audience is awful you can still have a great night and people will walk out thinking they had a great time even though…
• You can't really tell what the audience wants but you can tell what will keep everybody's attention in the same place.
• With all these great (guitar teachers) around here, don't cop their licks, COP THEIR ATTITUDE.
• I had been playing single note instruments and I wanted to hear a guitar played as a piano.
• The bulk of my set is instrumental and you have to give yourself and the audience some relief because a performance is not about great…
• I would say that if you don't feel like talking to the crowd something is wrong and if you force yourself to talk to them…
• I think if you are writing an instrumental you are dealing with more of an aesthetic in a sense but a lyric is more of…
• It's true that the more you put in the more you get out and that has to be there I think, If you aren't really…
• It is not a mystical thing, however, it is obvious and practical and I think that what the performer does is to try to get…
• I think that open tunings are a trap really because it's really hard not to sound like an open tuning when your using one and…
• I am evidence that you don't have to sell a lot of records or succeed in the usual way to have a big audience and…
• I have always thought of myself as a performer first and way down the line as a recording artist.
• The first music I was exposed to was Stravinsky and I loved it but I don't remember it.
• I don't spend a lot of time thinking of what they'll do musically, I try to imagine being locked into a windowless room with this…
• I was taking a nose dive somewhere between eleven and twelve because my sister had died and I was practicing something that siblings do which…
• We had a day off here yesterday and I just sat in my room and played.

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