Tom Verlaine

Emily Dickinson has great sound and sense.

— Tom Verlaine

I really don't have that much interest in stardom.

— Tom Verlaine

The song Venus de Milo, the whole subject of it is Love is a drug.

— Tom Verlaine

I never liked mellow sounding guitar.

— Tom Verlaine

Practice? I never practice. I just write songs and take solos.

— Tom Verlaine

I'm not even sure who my audience is.

— Tom Verlaine

What's really fun is to write under different names.

— Tom Verlaine

You have to have that organizational principle behind the song.

— Tom Verlaine

You can't get so interested in just making sounds. The point of it all is some kind of expression.

— Tom Verlaine

The first time I met Patti Smith was in a laundromat. We knew some of the same people, including Richard Hell.

— Tom Verlaine

I like thinking of myself as invisible. I find it a very advantageous way to live.

— Tom Verlaine

All the Frank O'Hara types seem to have very little sound stuff going... it's so chatty or something.

— Tom Verlaine

When I think of 'influence', I think of 'influenza', like somebody's picked up a germ.

— Tom Verlaine

When somebody turned me on to a Coltrane record around seventh grade, I took up saxophone.

— Tom Verlaine

Boogie! I hate boogie, God, I mean, not the Chicago boogie like Willie Dixon or Howlin' Wolf, but all those awful white…

— Tom Verlaine

I grew up taking piano lessons and liking Wagner when I was in second grade.

— Tom Verlaine

Style to me is incidental. The British are very adept at creating it for its own sake, but the best style is…

— Tom Verlaine

With my records, it's just a matter of trying to create something fresh for myself in a very finite context, which is…

— Tom Verlaine

I don't want any production credit. I think producers are overrated. They're for people who, first of all, don't know anything about…

— Tom Verlaine

The whole reputation of being a rock guitar player, I could really care less about it. Still, when I hear new groups…

— Tom Verlaine

Well, I worked in a sheet metal factory once and scarred my wrist from the cuts. I found a sympathetic psychiatrist who…

— Tom Verlaine

I'm kind of proud of that little record! I mean I've heard about a million other records that have come out since…

— Tom Verlaine

It's like first grade where you make all your mistakes and people see it and yet some people see that there's something…

— Tom Verlaine

I'd never assume an audience was anything but totally receptive and perfect. Seriously, it seems to me that's the only circumstance you…

— Tom Verlaine

I have a real soft spot for flying saucer songs and Frenkenstein songs. When I was a kid the first record I…

— Tom Verlaine

I recently realized that Television has influenced a lot of English bands. Echo and the Bunnymen, U2, Teardrop Explodes - it's obvious…

— Tom Verlaine

I've seen a lot of people getting into Jazzmasters because of me, and, well, people don't know what they're in for. I…

— Tom Verlaine

There were a lot of things I listened to, but so-called pop music never killed me, you know, the type of stuff…

— Tom Verlaine

People ask me this a lot, what a song's about… I do think analyzing a song can be interesting, although it doesn't…

— Tom Verlaine

Johnny Jewel is how people were maybe two hundred years ago. Back then, when people got up in the morning, they knew…

— Tom Verlaine

I can't remember ever being really bored. I find life very interesting, actually. I think some other musicians are always looking for…

— Tom Verlaine

Yeah, I'd say there's probably about a couple of hundred people I admire - but that has nothing to do with what…

— Tom Verlaine

I'm not a clown but I'm not an academic either.

— Tom Verlaine

I don't think anybody thinks about their past much, unless they're in a mental institution.

— Tom Verlaine

You know, there is something I'm looking for when I'm writing. But I couldn't tell you what that is.

— Tom Verlaine

I don't think Marquee Moon was so good, y'know? Just another record. First records everybody likes a lot.

— Tom Verlaine

Everybody's out trying to be commercial. I'm not trying to be anything, really.

— Tom Verlaine

I wonder what all those Chinese poets sound like in Chinese. I like their distilled quality.

— Tom Verlaine

The Beat thing happened when I was younger. I used to run away from home, inspired by the Beats, like in '64…

— Tom Verlaine

I've got a quote for you, a good quote to describe Television...In madness there is order.

— Tom Verlaine