Innocence gave me confidence to go up against reality. Neil Peart More Quotes by Neil Peart More Quotes From Neil Peart People don't realize the limitations of 200 words, and the way they get chiselled down into a song that has to be sung. Neil Peart song people way Half the world hates What half the world does every day Half the world waits While half gets on with it anyway Neil Peart hate waiting doe Pure libertarianism believes that people will be generous and help each other. Well, they won't. I wish it were so, and I live that way. Neil Peart wish believe people It was actually drumming that gave me the stamina to get into sports later. Neil Peart drumming finesse sports It's interesting. I've known quite a few good athletes that can't begin to play a beat on the drum set. Most team sport is about the smooth fluidity of hand-eye coordination and physical grace, where drumming is much more about splitting all those things up. Neil Peart team athlete sports Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Neil Peart It astonished me in the early Nineties to suddenly have musicians admit that they had been inspired and influenced by us. That meant a lot at that time. But of course, being human, the... disrespect isn't even strong enough a word, is it? The opprobrium was painful. Being popular and hated is not satisfying. Neil Peart me disrespect strong time I've heard the stories. Like, Eric Clapton said he wanted to burn his guitar when he heard Jimi Hendrix play. I never understood that because, when I went and saw a great drummer or heard one, all I wanted to do was practice. Neil Peart never great guitar practice It's not the music you hear in your head that other people are going to hear. You have to be able to make it true enough to the image in your head, and that's where technique and technology come in, for sure, and knowledge. It's not true and will never be true that someone who knows nothing can sit in a basement and make great music. Neil Peart you music technology knowledge The real test of a musician is live performance. It's one thing to spend a long time learning how to play well in the studio, but to do it in front of people is what keeps me coming back to touring. Neil Peart me learning time people I am the audience. I want to observe people. Even when I'm playing drums onstage, I'm watching people. I'm looking at them and their faces and their T-shirts and their signs. And travelling by motorcycle, especially, the world is just coming at me. Neil Peart i-am me motorcycle people I'd be very honored to be the ambassador to drum solos. Neil Peart drum ambassador very honored What I've learned over the years is that the craft of songwriting is trying to take the personal and make it universal - or in the case of telling a story, taking the universal and making it personal. Neil Peart craft personal story trying Our songs were not written to be listened to in headphones or on the radio. They were written to be played. All of the little infinite detail that went into the arrangements and giving ourselves lots of breathing room in terms of playing what we wanted to play and using up any ideas that we had - all of those were conceived to be performed. Neil Peart detail play giving ideas When I was young, my ambitions were very modest. I thought, 'If only I could play at the battle of the bands at the Y, that would be the culmination of existence!' And then the roller rink, and you work your way up branch by branch. Neil Peart you battle work way I always thought if I could just put something in words perfectly enough, people would get the idea, and it would change things. That's a harmless conceit. With people, too, you constantly think, 'If I'm nice to people and treat them well, they'll appreciate it and behave better.' They won't, but it's still not a bad way to live. Neil Peart words you change people For me to call myself a musician, it's necessary to play live, and it rewards so much - not just in the pay cheque sense but what it does for my playing. I feel it through a tour - I feel it at the end of a tour - all that I've gathered, and especially now that I am improvising so much. Neil Peart i-am feel myself me If drummers are 'anti-solo,' that's up to them. They're musicians, and they can play whatever they want. But my inspirations early on were people like Buddy Rich, seeing him on 'The Tonight Show', or Gene Krupa. Neil Peart musicians rich want people You have to know when you're at the top of your particular mountain, I guess. Maybe not the summit, but as high as you can go. Neil Peart go know you mountain
