Don't be ashamed of your own ideas. Most musicians get applauded for sounding like someone else. Brian Eno More Quotes by Brian Eno More Quotes From Brian Eno Stop thinking about art works as objects, and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences. Brian Eno philosophical photography art The trouble with New Age music is that there's no evil in it. Brian Eno trouble age evil Everything is an experiment until it has a deadline. That gives it a destination, context, and a reason. Brian Eno destination reason giving If something is good, you must torture it mercilessly until it is either dead or great. Brian Eno torture ifs Lyrics are always misleading because they make people think that that's what the music is about. Brian Eno music-is people thinking The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band Brian Eno velvet albums band The dominant theory coming out of Hollywood is that peoples' attention spans are getting shorter and shorter and they need more stimulation. Brian Eno hollywood attention needs When I was working with Talking Heads what would happen typically is that they would go out and start playing a track, and I would always run the tape. I always record everything, even a run through where you're trying to get in tune. That's a principle because sometimes when the situation isn't clear interesting things happen, and they are worth listening to again. Brian Eno track running interesting The point about working is not to produce great stuff all the time, but to remain ready for when you can. Brian Eno produce ready stuff Set up a situation that presents you with something slightly beyond your reach. Brian Eno situation If there is a new fascism, it won't come from skinheads and punks; it will come from people who eat granola and think they know how the world should be. Brian Eno people world thinking Whenever you listen to a piece of music, what you are actually doing is hearing the latest sentence in a very long story you’ve been listening to - all the pieces of music you’ve ever heard. Brian Eno stories listening long Well, I am a dilettante. It's only in England that dilettantism is considered a bad thing. In other countries it's called interdisciplinary research. Brian Eno england research country The reason conservatives cohere and radicals fight: everyone agrees about fears, no one about visions. Brian Eno vision fighting reason My interest in making music has been to create something that does not exist that I would like to listen to. I wanted to hear music that had not yet happened, by putting together things that suggested a new thing which did not yet exist. Brian Eno interest together doe If you grow up in a very strong religion like Catholicism you certainly cultivate in yourself a certain taste for the intensity of ideas. Brian Eno growing-up strong ideas The smart thing in the art world is to have one good idea and never have another. Brian Eno world ideas art You can hear the profile of a sound, in retrospect, so much more clearly than you did at the time. And I think one of the things that's going to be nauseatingly characteristic about so much music of now is its glossy production values and its griddedness, the tightness of the way everything is locked together. Brian Eno sound together thinking The point about melody and beat and lyric is that they exist to engage you in a very particular way. They want to occupy your attention. Brian Eno want attention way Lyrics are the only thing to do with music that haven't been made easier technically. Brian Eno things-to-do easier made
