Explore the most impactful and insightful quotes and sayings by Paul Simon, and enrich your perspective with the wisdom. Share these inspiring Paul Simon quotes pictures with your friends on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or your personal blogs, completely free. Here are the top 191 Paul Simon quotes for you to read and share.
I know a man
He came from my home town
He wore his passion for his woman
Like a thorny crown
He said Dolores
I live in fear
My love for you's so overpowering
I'm afraid that I will disappear -- Paul Simon
I like working with sound; sound and rhythm. I like the abstract more than "What does that mean?" Nobody ever says to you, "Why did you use a harmonium?" Or "What is that ringing sound that occurs here?" The questions are always "What does that song mean?" or "What were you trying to say here?" -- Paul Simon
But when someone says 'Paul Simon', don't you just inevitably think of a piece of wonder bread just sittin' there on a counter top? -- Paul Simon
I feel I should try to reveal. When you hit it right, you produce an emotional response in the listener that can be cathartic. When you're wrong, you're soppy, sentimental. -- Paul Simon
Time it was And what a time it was, it was A time of innocence A time of confidences Long ago it must be I have a photograph Preserve your memories They're all that's left you -- Paul Simon
I'm more interested in what I discover than what I invent. -- Paul Simon
Some people never say the words 'I love you', for like a child they're longing to be told. -- Paul Simon
Cecilia was made in a living room on a Sony. It was like a little piece of magical fluff, bur it works. El Condor Pasa a Los Incas record that I love. Bridge is a very strong melodic song. -- Paul Simon
There is a moment, a chip in time, when leaving home is the lesser crime. -- Paul Simon
Every time the industry gets powerful, and corporate thinking dominates what the music is, then the music really pales. -- Paul Simon
A phenomenon occurs but because you're in the middle of it, you just think it's your life-until it's over. And then you look back and say, What an unusual thing happened to me in the '60s. -- Paul Simon
Couple in the next room bound to win a prize, they've been going at it all night long. -- Paul Simon
My whole artistic life has always been about change, change, change, move on, move on. It's the only thing I find interesting. -- Paul Simon
Not every song I write is ecstasy. And it can happen only one time. After that, when you sing the same melody and words, it's pleasure, but you don't get wiped out. -- Paul Simon
Although I was able to study music with teachers, I never studied lyric writing. I read poetry, and I read other lyricists. But they were never writing in the style or the form that I was interested in. -- Paul Simon
Sometimes even music cannot substitute for tears. -- Paul Simon
I don't very often think I've done a good job. I don't like the majority of what I do. I shouldn't say I don't like it, but I'm not satisfied with almost everything that I do. -- Paul Simon
Mrs. Robinson is a little dated now, but it has nothing to do with Joe DiMaggio. -- Paul Simon
I try to open up my heart as much as I can and keep a real keen eye out that I don't get sentimental. I think we're all afraid to reveal our hearts. It's not at all in fashion. -- Paul Simon
And a rock feels no pain; And an island never cries. -- Paul Simon
Blessed are the sat upon, spat upon, ratted on. -- Paul Simon
I have my books and poetry to protect me -- Paul Simon
I don't like fashion. It's very heartless. -- Paul Simon
The only time that love is an easy game is when two other people are playing it. -- Paul Simon
I met my old lover on the street last night, she seemed glad to see me. -- Paul Simon
I question what emotion Manilow touches. People are entertained by him. But are they emotionally moved? I don't believe anything that Barry Manilow sings. -- Paul Simon
Lord, I am a surgeon and music is my knife. It cuts away my sorrow and purifies my life. -- Paul Simon
Hide it in a hiding place where no one ever goes
Put it in your pantry with your cupcakes -- Paul Simon
Being an artist doesn't mean that you're a good artist. That was the bargain I first made with myself: I'd say, I'm an artist, but I'm not really very good. -- Paul Simon
I sort of recognize it, as opposed to shaping it. Oh, that's a good idea, that's a good line. I wonder where I can use that. And when you get into a rhyme group like 'not,' you got a lot of rhymes, you got a lot of choices. The more you do it, the luckier you get. -- Paul Simon
The record company stay out of my way. Whenever the record is finished, they take it. -- Paul Simon
I see a correlation between short stories and songs, because of their length and for what they're meant to evoke. Combine certain words with melodies and it all becomes very moving. -- Paul Simon
I don't feel any pressure from fans. But I'm always in some kind of state of emotional turmoil. I would not describe myself as happy-go-lucky. That's not to say that I'm not happy. -- Paul Simon
And she said 'Losing love is like a window in your heart,
Everybody sees you're blown apart,
Everybody feels the wind blow.' -- Paul Simon
One of the things that upset me was some of the criticism leveled at Simon and Garfunkel. I always took exception to it, but actually I agree with a lot of it. -- Paul Simon
It's very helpful to start with something that's true. If you start with something that's false, you're always covering your tracks. Something simple and true, that has a lot of possibilities, is a nice way to begin. -- Paul Simon
I'm going to Graceland, for reasons I cannot explain. There's some part of me wants to see Graceland. And I may be advised to defend every love, every ending, or maybe there's no obligations now. Maybe I've a reason to believe we all will be received in Graceland. -- Paul Simon
We're living in a certain time, and we're aware of it. And that's part of what we're aware of, along with our own personal aches and pains. -- Paul Simon
Time, time, time, see what's become of me,
While I looked around,
For my possibilities;
I was so hard to please -- Paul Simon
Serious numbers will speak to us always. -- Paul Simon
Kodachrome, it gives us those nice bright colors
Gives us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah!
I got a Nikon camera, I love to take a photograph
So momma, don't take my Kodachrome away ... -- Paul Simon
I lived in an attached house. My father used to drive into the wrong driveway all the time. He'd say, Damn it, how do you tell one of these houses from another? -- Paul Simon
I don't consider myself to be a major talent, so the only solace I can take is to hope I'm growing. -- Paul Simon
The degree of customization possible through your Preferences screens is awesome. -- Paul Simon
People ask how I feel about getting old. I tell them I have the same question. I'm learning as I go. -- Paul Simon
My voice is my improvisational instrument, the melody instrument. The guitar is harmonic structure. I'm not a good enough guitarist to improvise on it. -- Paul Simon
I'm just trying to keep my customer satisfied. -- Paul Simon
We work our jobs, collect our pay, believe were gliding down the highway, when in fact we're slip sliding away. -- Paul Simon
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away. -- Paul Simon
Was a sunny day, not a cloud in the sky. Not a negative word was heard. -- Paul Simon
I didn't get how big it was until I went home, turned on the television and saw it on all the news, and later that night on the front pages of all the newspapers. Then I got it. -- Paul Simon
I've got a reason to believe we all be received in Graceland, Graceland, Memphis Tennessee. -- Paul Simon
Just slip out the back, Jack, make a new plan, Stan, you don't need to be coy, Roy, just get yourself free. Hop on the bus, Gus, you don't need to discuss much, just drop off the key, Lee, and get yourself free. -- Paul Simon
The students of Gallaudet have sent a powerful message across this country! -- Paul Simon
You know, life is what you make of it- so beautiful or so what. -- Paul Simon
I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died. If I never loved I never would have cried ... I am a rock. -- Paul Simon
Who am I to blow against the wind? -- Paul Simon
Nor is it strange That after changes upon changes, we are more or less the same -- Paul Simon
I was eating in a Chinese restaurant downtown. There was a dish called Mother and Child Reunion. It's chicken and eggs. And I said, I gotta use that one. -- Paul Simon
You can burn down my churches. But I shall be free. -- Paul Simon
Medicine is magical and magical is art, the boy in the bubble, and the baby with the baboon heart. -- Paul Simon
We just did what we'd done when we were an act in the '60s. But I found it impossible to hold a dialogue with 500,000 people. In a certain sense, it was numbing. -- Paul Simon
Given all the facts that I'm young and I'm in good health and I'm famous - that I have talent, I have money - given all these facts, I want to know why I'm so unhappy. -- Paul Simon
It's outrageous to line your pockets off the misery of the poor; It's outrageous, the crimes some human beings must endure ... -- Paul Simon
When I was a young reporter, the great vice among journalists was whiskey. Today, it's cynicism. -- Paul Simon
The words come. Usually, it's a long time before they come. And then when they start to come, it doesn't take so long for it to be finished. It takes a long time to begin. And then it sort of gets finished. -- Paul Simon
And all the people said 'What a shame that he's dead, but wasn't he a most peculiar man? -- Paul Simon
The dialogue between what's going on in the world and what's going on internally seems to be a natural thing - well, it's natural to me, anyway, to have these thoughts. -- Paul Simon
She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy
I said 'Be careful his bowtie is really a camera' -- Paul Simon
When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all -- Paul Simon
I think I have a superior brain and an inferior stature, if you really want to get brutal about it. -- Paul Simon
Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again. -- Paul Simon
Take two bodies and you twirl them into one, their hearts and their bones, and they won't come undone. -- Paul Simon
When I first heard Elvis perform "Bridge Over Trouble Water" it was unbelivable,and I thought to myself, how the hell can I compete with that? -- Paul Simon
It was the year of the Beatles, it was the year of the Stones, it was 1964. -- Paul Simon
Far above the golden clouds, the darkness vibrates.
The earth is blue.
And everything about it is a love song. Everything about it. -- Paul Simon
A fundamental requirement, overriding any other for this job, is an understanding of deafness-what it is and how it affects the educational experience. -- Paul Simon
I stepped outside to smoke a J and when I came back to the room, everybody just seemed to move. -- Paul Simon
All God requires from us is to enjoy life and love. That's the whole point. -- Paul Simon
I suppose an artist takes the elements of his life and rearranges them and then has them perceived by others as though they were the elements of their lives. -- Paul Simon
I am just a poor boy, though my story's seldom told, and I have squandered my resistance, for a pocket full of mumbles, such are promises. All lies in jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest ... la-la-la-la-la-la-la-lala-la-la-la-la ... -- Paul Simon
The trick is, as I know it, is to care like hell
and not give a damn at the same time. -- Paul Simon
I would be willing to do almost anything to make Art happy. I care about our friendship. The only thing I won't do is change the essence of my work. -- Paul Simon
I regret the ending of our friendship and hope one day before we die, we'll make peace with each other ... No rush. -- Paul Simon
I don't really like to write at a desk. I like to write when driving in a car ... Once you're working on it, you're working on it all the time, and sometimes stuff'll come in the middle of the night, in a dream or something. Your mind is working on it all the time. -- Paul Simon
It's actually very difficult to make something both simple and good. -- Paul Simon
In the clearing stands the boxer, and a fighter by his trade.
And he carries a reminder of every glove that laid him down ...
or cut him till he cried out in his anger and his shame
"I am leaving! I am leaving" but the fighter still remains. -- Paul Simon
I get the news I need on the weather report
And I have nothing to do today but smile -- Paul Simon
I've got nothing to do today but smile. -- Paul Simon
I don't think that Simon and Garfunkel as a live act compares to Simon and Garfunkel as a studio act. -- Paul Simon
Don't want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon grave yard. -- Paul Simon
Artie is a singer, and I'm a writer and player and a singer. We didn't work together on a creative level and prepare the songs. I did that. -- Paul Simon
When I was 15, I made a solo record. It made Artie very unhappy. He looked upon it as something of a betrayal. -- Paul Simon
Artie travels all the time. The rehearsals were just miserable. Artie and I fought all the time. He didn't want to do the show with my band; he just wanted me on acoustic guitar. -- Paul Simon
So I'll continue to continue to pretend my life will never end, and flowers never bend with the rainfall. -- Paul Simon
Every generation throws a hero up the pop charts. -- Paul Simon
It's pointless to be critical of your stuff once it's done. I don't spend a lot of time agonising over it. It's of no importance once it's finished. -- Paul Simon
You want to be a writer, don't know how or when? Find a quiet place, use a humble pen. -- Paul Simon
The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenements halls and whispered in the sounds of silence. -- Paul Simon
Music is sometimes the only benign avenue of communication between antagonists. -- Paul Simon
Breakdowns come, and breakdowns go. -- Paul Simon
I always get very calm with baseball. -- Paul Simon
Take me. I'm an ordinary player in the key of C.
And my will was broken by my pride and my vanity.
Who's gonna love you when you're looks are gone?
God will. Like he waters the flowers on your window sill. -- Paul Simon
I have my books
And my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock,
I am an island.
-- Paul Simon
The leaves that are green turn to brown. And they wither with the wind. And they crumble in your hand. -- Paul Simon
Why am I so soft in the middle when the rest of my life is so hard? -- Paul Simon
Justice Stevens is one of those who are most sensitive to the least powerful in our society. -- Paul Simon
Everything looks worse in black and white. -- Paul Simon
Improvisation is too good to leave to chance. -- Paul Simon
Anthony Heilbut has been a guide and a mentor to me. I know of no one who has the love and depth of knowledge of this extraordinary author. -- Paul Simon
Sail on silver girl, sail on by ... your time has come to shine all your dreams are on their way ... see how they shine..oh and if you need a friend. I'm sailing right behind ... -- Paul Simon
I would not be convicted by a jury of my peers, still crazy after all these years. -- Paul Simon
It was easier than explaining DiMaggio's use as a metaphor. -- Paul Simon
Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you. -- Paul Simon
People talking without speaking,/ People listening without hearing ... Sounds of Silence. -- Paul Simon
Much of songwriting is simply a mystery. -- Paul Simon
By the time I was 12 or 13, I felt that I was special, because I could play the guitar and write songs. -- Paul Simon
A man sees what he wants to see and disregards the rest. - Paraphrased from The Boxer -- Paul Simon
A songwriter's supreme challenge is being complex and simple at the same time -- Paul Simon
We got on American Bandstand, where kids would dance to a record and then rate it. We called ourselves Tom and Jerry. I was Jerry. -- Paul Simon
I don't think [Dylan and the Beatles] influenced me a lot. I think it was inevitable; they were so powerful that you couldn't really escape the influence. -- Paul Simon
And you read your emily dickinson,
And I my robert frost.
And we note our place with bookmarkers
That measure what weve lost. -- Paul Simon
I want to rid my heart of envy, and cleanse my soul of rage before I'm through. -- Paul Simon
She said a good day ain't got no rain
She said a bad day is when I lie in the bed
And I think of things that might have been -- Paul Simon
These are the days of lasers in the jungle, staccato signals of constant information ... -- Paul Simon
The abstract music is just more interesting because it doesn't really have anything to say, but if it is good, it creates thoughts and feelings, and I enjoy that. For me, once the music creates those thoughts and feelings, I begin to write a song about it. -- Paul Simon
I don't know what I'm going to write when I begin to write. It feels like you are walking down a path, but you can't see around the bend and you don't know where you are going to go, which is fun. -- Paul Simon
And I must be what I must be and face tomorrow. -- Paul Simon
We were always able to sing and blend well together; that's our gift. But aside from that, we're really two different guys. -- Paul Simon
The course of a lifetime runs/over and over again -- Paul Simon
We've survived by believing our life is going to get better. -- Paul Simon
I like them all ... They're all pictures of me when I wrote them ... I have no favorite songs. -- Paul Simon
These are the days of miracle and wonder. -- Paul Simon
We had many more points of agreement than we had points of difference, but we did differ, and the bigger we got, the more insistent we got that each one of us should have his way. -- Paul Simon
Love is an island in the setting sun -- Paul Simon
There's something about the sound of a train that's very romantic and nostalgic and hopeful. -- Paul Simon
Life I love you, all is groovy. -- Paul Simon
The Wisdom is old, the Koran is old, the Bible is old. Disagreements? Work 'em out. -- Paul Simon
Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die. -- Paul Simon
Elvis was the reason I picked up the guitar. -- Paul Simon
The risk of failure is part of the fun of what I do. -- Paul Simon
To get the stuff out of you, especially if what you're dealing with is yourself, requires you to open up and touch tender spots. You have to be anesthetized a little bit. -- Paul Simon
All I've got to do today is smile. -- Paul Simon
Maybe I think too much for my own good. -- Paul Simon
I think Bridge Over Troubled Water was a very good song. Artie sang it beautifully. The Boxer was a really nice record. But I don't think I've written any great songs. -- Paul Simon
The phrasing didn't work as well. -- Paul Simon
Anybody can do bad work, but not everybody does good work. -- Paul Simon
As long as you have capital punishment there is no guarantee that innocent people won't be put to death. -- Paul Simon
The thought that life could be better is woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains. -- Paul Simon
If you can get humor and seriousness at the same time, you've created a special little thing, and that's what I'm looking for, because if you get pompous, you lose everything. -- Paul Simon
Somewhere in a burst of glory / Sound becomes a song. -- Paul Simon
When we came into the studio I became more and more me, making the tracks and choosing the musicians, partly because a great deal of the time during Bridge, Artie wasn't there. -- Paul Simon
There are two sorts of people in the world: Those who listen and those who are thinking about what they are going to say next. -- Paul Simon
Jay Ashby is simply a great musician! -- Paul Simon
If you'll be my body guard, I can be your long lost pal. -- Paul Simon
Who's gonna love you when your looks are gone? -- Paul Simon
The death penalty is reserved for people who do not -- Paul Simon
When I began making my own albums, the songs became funkier. They were more about the streets. -- Paul Simon
Losing love is like a window in your heart ... -- Paul Simon
Two times two is twenty-two, four times four is forty-four. When numbers get serious, they leave a mark on your door. -- Paul Simon
I rate each album as better than the last one. That's how I see it. -- Paul Simon
People often called us perfectionists, but we were not looking for perfection. We were looking for some kind of magic in the music. -- Paul Simon
Someone told me it's all happening at the zoo. -- Paul Simon
I'm not in it for the money. I like music. I love to write music. I can't imagine myself not playing or singing or writing. It would just drive me crazy if I didn't. -- Paul Simon
I don't believe what the papers are saying They're just out to capture my dime, Exaggerating this, exaggerating that. -- Paul Simon
People say a lie is just a lie, but I say why deny the obvious child. -- Paul Simon
Faith is an island in the setting sun, But proof is the bottom line for everyone. -- Paul Simon
There must be 50 ways to leave your lover. -- Paul Simon
Listen to the sound of silence. -- Paul Simon
What threatens us today in the world of computers and other invasions of privacy is not a national ID card but a number of other things. -- Paul Simon
Having a track record to live up to and the history of successes had become a hindrance. It becomes harder to break out of what people expect you to do. -- Paul Simon
I'm laying out my winter clothes and wishing I was gone, Going home, where the new york city winters aren't bleedin' me. -- Paul Simon
Well I'm on my way
I don't know where I'm going
I'm on my way I'm taking my time
But I don't know where -- Paul Simon
How can you live in the Northeast? -- Paul Simon
Maybe the heart is part of the mist.
And that's all that there is or could ever exist.
Maybe and maybe and maybe some more.
Maybe's the exit that I'm looking for. -- Paul Simon
A man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest. -- Paul Simon
You can't outrun the history train -- Paul Simon
A lot of talent is a gift, but a lot is also luck. I'm very aware of that. I was born in the right place at the right time. I am also blessed because I've never been a sex symbol. I'm spared the embarrassment of acting young. -- Paul Simon
They've got a wall in China, it's a thousand miles long. To keep out the foreigners, they made it strong. And I've got a wall around me, you can't even see. -- Paul Simon
Someone could walk into this room and say your life is on fire. -- Paul Simon
I'm always going forward toward something, and that something is usually an album, because I like to record. I probably like to record more than I like to write. -- Paul Simon
It's a big error to think that because you like somebody's work, you're going to like him. -- Paul Simon
The public hungers to see talented young people kill themselves. -- Paul Simon
The more I get to thinking, the less I tend to laugh. -- Paul Simon
How much can you do with two voices? You can sing thirds or you can sing fifths or you can do a background harmony. -- Paul Simon
After all those years of automatic success, you don't get nervous any more. It's really necessary to be nervous and be a little bit frightened. It pumps the adrenalin into you and you really get down there and try. -- Paul Simon
Without Arthur's voice, I never would have enjoyed that success. -- Paul Simon
Facts can be turned into art if one is artful enough. -- Paul Simon
Then she kissed me and I realized she probably was right, there must be fifty ways to leave your lover. -- Paul Simon
One man's ceiling is another man's floor. -- Paul Simon
You have underestimated my power, as you will shortly discover. -- Paul Simon
