Arlo Guthrie
The death of what's dead is the birth of what's living.Collection: Death
At the same time the folk boom was happening, the civil rights movement was happening, the anti-war movement was happening, the ban the bomb movement was happening, the environmental movement was happening. There was suddenly a generation ready to change the course of history.Collection: Environmental
Along with a sense of humor, my songs have to be sincere, and they have to be sung from a position of inner conviction.Collection: Humor
Basically, I think you need two things to get by in this world: a sense of humor and the ability to laugh when your ego is destroyed.Collection: Humor
You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in.
But think of the last guy. For one minute, think of the last guy. Nobody's got it worse than that guy. Nobody in the whole world.
I don't want a pickle, just want to ride on my motorsickle.
Everyone has a responsibility to not only tolerate another person's point of view, but also to accept it eagerly as a challenge to your own understanding. And express those challenges in terms of serving other people.
We live in an increasingly sophisticated world that makes it difficult to make simple comments on stuff. There are too many people on both sides of the border who are taking advantage of circumstances and the situation.
If you do anything for 40 years, you can do it comfortably. And it will always be good. But unless you're willing to risk it being bad, it can never be great.
There's only one God. Call him whatever you want.
Folk music is music that everyday people can play, and it inspired a lot of people to make their own music. That trailed into making your own pop music, and that's why garage bands started springing up everywhere.
I'd rather have friends who care than friends who agree with me.
We would turn everything into songs in those days.
Greed and globalization aren't just America's fault.
There are people all over the world who are willing to exploit others. You can't just point the finger at America.
You get people talking about being worried about their art, and dances... their culture being wiped out or taken over, and yet these same people are taking advantage of their people to use them as cheap labour.
Building walls isn't going to work in the long run. Some people are happy with the wall in Israel, but somebody will get a weapon someday and knock it over or something. Walls aren't the answer between countries, though.
I don't do anything on stage that allows me to become a trained seal, where you're just doing the same thing over and over.
My only description for me is that there's no throwaway people. That's the creed that I live by. It doesn't matter if I'm singing or not. That's the kind of person that my father and mother wanted me to be. The end obligation is to make people feel good about who they are.
My mother had introduced me to a lot of my father's friends because she believed that I would get to know the guy my dad was better through his friends than just in the hospital visits.
People were talking about songs of the common man in order to make the common man. With Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly, they were so common it was just uncommon.
My dad's songs were really written to make certain people feel as though they had some kind of value. Because they were told from where they work and from the countries they had immigrated from that they did not.
With the advent of radio and recording, music became an industry rather than just a tradition.
Yes, I was born in Coney Island. The Holy Land.
I thought I would be governor of Massachusetts. I stood on a pile of my old albums and said, 'I'm the only one with a record to stand on.'
I think of my parents as a single unit, and it's interesting because they shared so much, and they were totally opposite. My mother, a Martha Graham dancer, had a classical background; my father had a back-porch background.
Thank God that the people that run this world are not smart enough to keep running it forever. You know, everybody gets a handle on it for a little while.
I'm not just a singer-songwriter doing songs in the key of me.
I left the entertainment industry part of my life behind in 1983, when we decided not to work with major record companies anymore.
Everywhere I go, I see all kinds of people at my shows - conservatives, liberals, new-agers, teen-agers, old pensioners. And for those people to have something in common is real interesting to me.
I've written quite a variety of songs, everything from kids songs to political satire, and my dad covered a fairly large range, also.
Music is a nice friend to have around, whether it is just for yourself or for other people. If you can enjoy it, being professional is almost secondary.
Probably my two biggest musical influences were the Everly Brothers and the Beatles, in chronological order. Both of them have had a very simple-sounding musical style that's actually quite complex as far as popular songs are concerned.
Santa Claus wears a Red Suit, he must be a communist. And a beard and long hair, must be a pacifist. What's in that pipe that he's smoking?Collection: Funny
Everyone has troubles. Finding yourself in the same boat with everyone else is the first sign of spirituality.Collection: Finding Yourself
Being famous is not the same as being important. A lot of important people aren't famous, and a lot of famous people aren't important.Collection: People
Songs are like fish. You just gotta have your line in the water. And it's a bad idea to fish downstream from Bob Dylan.Collection: Song
If you want to end war and stuff, you gotta sing loud.Collection: War
There's only one God. Call him whatever you wantCollection: Want
I don't want a pickle, just want to ride on my motorsickleCollection: Want
No Judgment = No Expectations: That's my motto.Collection: Expectations
Building walls isn't going to work in the long run. Some people are happy with the wall in Israel, but somebody will get a weapon someday and knock it over or something. Walls aren't the answer between countries, thoughCollection: Running
Songwriting is like fishing in a stream; you put in your line and hope to catch something. And I don't think anyone downstream from Bob Dylan ever caught anything.Collection: Thinking
You teach kids how to succeed when they successfully foil the educational system.Collection: Educational
Only the words of love kept alive are worthy of not being wasted.Collection: Love
We would turn everything into songs in those days...A lot of people think "Alice's Restaurant" was an anti-war song. It's not.Collection: Song
Coming into Los Angeles, bringing in a couple of keys. Don't touch my bags, if you please Mr. Customs man.Collection: Couple
I don't want a pickle, I just want ride on my motorcikle. I don't want to die, I just want a ride on my motorcy........cle.Collection: Motorcycle
If readers understand that they do not understand what they are reading then they must possess an understanding which is superior to the meaning which caused that misunderstanding.Collection: Reading