I find it hard to take rock groups very seriously or treat them with respect. There is something absurd about these gloomy young men getting together and banging away. Robert Wyatt More Quotes by Robert Wyatt More Quotes From Robert Wyatt I would like to think that the singer is the butterfly, and the drummer was just the little grub in the ground, working to become a caterpillar Robert Wyatt butterflylittlesthinking I play music a lot but on my own mostly, so it was nice to be around other people. There was a certain sense a relief in the physical act of just playing and being with other musicians. Robert Wyatt niceplaypeople We did not get any money from the early records. It was all taken by crooked managers. It is just a gangster's paradise. Robert Wyatt recordsmoneytaken In the past, so many of my records, really, have been sketches for records that never really got made. Robert Wyatt recordsmadepast This constant pressure from record companies to come up with a hit single or something like that, I find completely tiresome. Robert Wyatt come-uprecordspressure I don't do live things. Robert Wyatt I really liked them, not just Syd, but all of them. Roger was very important, I thought, his contribution. And so was Rick's organ playing. It was a good band. It became something else completely, obviously. Robert Wyatt rogerbandimportant I'll probably lose every friend I've got, but I think the Russians are about the only people who have behaved decently in the conflict with the Ukraine. All the evidence to the contrary seems a bit bogus to me. NATO is trying to use Ukraine to isolate and cripple Russia, and that's completely crazy and very cruel. It seems to me that our side, the English and American people, really want it to go bad there. But there's no need for it to have done so. At least that's what I think. You won't hear a lot of that on Fox News. Robert Wyatt crazypeoplethinking I think that pop, and to some extent rock, are like sport and fashion industry in that they're about the exuberance of youth. That's the sort of subliminal ideology. Robert Wyatt fashionsportsthinking It just doesnt mean anything to me, the high-profile, big money side of things. I just want enough to live on, and to be able to get on with what I do, and hang around my friends. Robert Wyatt friendstwo-sidesmean When I'm singing I try not be a singer with a capital S. I just try to get it out so I feel comfortable with it. Robert Wyatt singerssingingtrying I get slightly irritated by people who say they're natural rebels because it just means that they're going to be against whatever anybody does, which is almost like saying you might as well leave it as it is. I'm naturally quite conformist, really. If I go to a country and they say, "You've got to drive on the right," I'm not going to drive on the left to show that I'm different. I'm able to stick to the law. I'm not a soldier for anything, either. I'm only a singer and I don't think it makes a difference what we sing. Robert Wyatt meancountrythinking Those nations of artists, finding their own individualism, and kind of standing against the world: to me that's the ultimate nightmare. I want to get lost and diffused in the world. Robert Wyatt artistwantworld When there is a voice in a piece of music, we tend to focus on the voice. That is probably something from when we were babies and we depended on hearing our mother's voice. Robert Wyatt musicmotherbaby When I lost the use of my hi-hat and bass drum legs, I became basically a singer. I was a drummer who did a bit of singing, and then I became a singer who did a bit of percussion. Robert Wyatt singinghateuse I stopped drinking a few years ago, and drinking was a big help with me making music, because drinking gives you courage. But it also makes you reckless, and that's the trouble. You can get away with that your 20s, but not in your 60s, and I'll be 70 next year. Life is a small space now, much more intimate. I'm not out there in the world anymore, but I'm watching. Robert Wyatt drinkinggivingworld Even if you're specific about the character of the song, it's more exciting to place them, juxtapose them in such a way as to make an adventure out of the sequence of the songs. Robert Wyatt songadventuretravel Im not, by nature, a collaborator. My biggest influences were people like painters and poets. These are solitary workers. Robert Wyatt influencenaturepeople I have never felt in tune with the whole rock industry. Robert Wyatt rockstuneswhole I don't think losing things - in my case, the use of my legs - really damages or hurts you. What hurts people a lot is taking humiliation. A lot of the wars going on right now in the Middle East aren't about poverty and exploitation. They're about humiliation. For a long time, the British and French have been humiliating the people of the Middle East, and encouraging people like Israel to do the same. Israel started out as a socialist state, but we always encouraged them to become rather racist and look down on the local inhabitants, which they now do. It's sad that's happened. Robert Wyatt hurtwarthinking
