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David Bowie Quotes

“David had great, grand ideas. To become well known, famous, for him was initially to have the resources to realize what his ideas were. He really does come from that spirit, he just didn’t want to be famous per se.”
— Tony VIsconti, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: Ideas, Integrity, Fame, Spirit
“I had this poetic, romantic juvenile idea that I’d be dead by 30. And then suddenly you’re 40. And then 50. Then 57.”
— David Bowie, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: Poetic, Romantic, Juvenile, Aging
“I wouldn’t dream of getting on a spaceship, It’d scare the shit out of me….I’m scared going down the end of the garden.”
— David Bowie, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: Outer Space, Space Travel, Fear
“I’m not content to be just a rock’n roll star. I’m trying to be one at the moment just so I can get off into other things.”
— David Bowie, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: Fame, celebrity, Opportunism, Means To An End
“I would love to feel that what I did actually changed the fabric of music.”
— David Bowie, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: Music, Innovation
“I found I didn’t get so shy if I sort of adopted a character. So it was a convenience, as well as a very bright theatrical idea.”
— David Bowie, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: shyness, Stage Fright, Theatrical, Ziggy Stardust
“I found out later the week we were shooting, is when he found out, it’s over, [he’d] end treatments, that his illness has won.”
— Johan Renck, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: cancer, Illness, Mortality
“Whatever he was going through health-wise at the time, one thing that was really inspiring was how, from the first day, from the first note, he was just totally in it.”
— Donnie McCaslin, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: Inspirational, Passion, Dedication
“I’m not really very keen to put on much of a theatrical show in terms of big sets and fireworks and elephants. Of course that doesn’t mean that I won’t go back on my word because that’s part and parcel of what I do for you. Part of my entertaining factor is lying to you.”
— David Bowie, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: Entertainment, Deception
“He said, ‘I have to tell you that I’m very ill, and that I’m probably going to die.’ Utterly out of the blue, just like that. I felt that when he was saying that, for a brief second, he looked scared.”
— Johan Renck, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: Fear, skype, Death
“Fame is a very luxuriant mental hospital.”
— David Bowie, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: Fame, Luxury, Mental Hospital, Prison
“It wasn’t that he was out of breath. He was, like, hyperventilating in a way. Like, getting his energy up to sing this, to deliver this song. He was quite stoked. I like to say ‘in the zone.’ And I could see him, through the window, that he was really feeling it.””
— Tony VIsconti, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: Singing, Hyperventilating, In The Zone, Energy, David Bowie, Lazarus
“I’m much more interested in the process of life; the celebrity side of it, I couldn’t give a sausage.”
— David Bowie, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: celebrity, Life, Sausage, Privacy
“What a disappointing 21st century this has been so far.”
— David Bowie, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: Disappointment, 2000, Expectations, 21st Century
“I’d love people to believe that I really had great haircuts.”
— David Bowie, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: Fashion, Haircuts
“I'm not a Dylan….I’m not somebody who can stoically write a clear picture of what's happening. But I can leave a very strong impression of how I feel about it.”
— David Bowie, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: Bob Dylan, Realism, Impressionism
“He did seem that he had the gift from the gods, that he was never going to get old. He did and he didn’t, but in either case, Bowie made the most of it.”
— Gerry Leonard, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: Mortality, gods, Immortality, Aging
“I think it’s terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfill other people’s expectations. If you feel safe in the area that you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.”
— David Bowie, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: Experimentation, Risk, Metaphor, Artists, Playing It Safe, Making Art, risks
“It was a book that I'd loved all through my youth. But of course I didn't take into account the second Mrs. Orwell, who when she got wind of what we were doing, absolutely put her foot down and said, 'I'm not having rock and roll people work on my late husband's great piece of work.'”
— David Bowie, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: George Orwell, 1984, Rock and Roll
“When you start experimenting with soundscapes, it makes other things come to light.”
— Carlos Alomar, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: Music, Soundscapes, Experimentation
“There had been a number of incidents prior to creating this song that had moved him—I think the was really troubled by this trend of people going and shooting kids. He was very much aware of making a statement about gun control and the importance of that in his own style.”
— Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: school shootings, Gun Control, troubled kids
“Going on tour each night excited him very much. But he said to me flat out, 'I'm tired.' I think he fulfilled all his wishes and dreams and maybe got a little oversaturated.”
— Tony VIsconti, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: Touring, Music, Boredom
“I have a certain niche that I work in. A lot of it has to be about alienation. Being on the outside of things. That tends to be where I feel more comfortable as a writer.”
— David Bowie, David Bowie: The Last Five Years
Tagged: Niche, Writing, Alienation
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