David Crosby
I don't like greed, I don't like ignorance. I really don't like anger. But I love love.Collection: Anger
Sailing became one of the mainstreams of my life. I suppose my father was an influence. I remember seeing a photo of him at home sailing a big boat to Bermuda in his 20s. I still have it.
I'm older than I'd like and I'm creaky, but I'm doing alright.
My father being in the movie business, I thought being an actor would be great. But when I started singing to people in coffeehouses, you know, singing folk music and then, later, singing songs that I started to write myself, I felt more than an affinity for it. I felt a calling.
I've always been a very careful sailor. I know, me and being careful - doesn't really sound right, does it? But when I sail, I take it seriously and take along spares for everything. You have to be careful when you're 1,500 miles from land. There's no one you can call. You're on your own.
I started singing in coffeehouses when I was still in high school, in Santa Barbara. I took a job washing dishes and busing tables in the coffeehouse, so I could be there, and would beg permission to sing harmony with the guy who was singing onstage. That was the first time I ever got on a stage in front of people.
I don't collect the way other people do. Some people collect rare guitars, like, 'I have a '54 Strat worth $50,000.' And I don't collect the way Nash does. Nash has Duane Allman's guitar and Johnny Cash's guitar. I bought guitars because they sounded good. I played them, they sounded unbelievably good, and I couldn't resist.
Being a hippy was the most natural thing in the world to me.
My songs emerge from my life, or wherever they do, unbidden and unplanned and completely on a schedule of their own.
I am having so much fun performing, I feel almost guilty. I think, my God, I hope no one comes and busts me for this.
My father being in the movie business, I thought being an actor would be great. But when I started singing to people in coffeehouses, you know, singing folk music and then, later, singing songs that I started to write myself, I felt more than an affinity for it.
Describing Woodstock as the 'big bang,' I think that's a great way to describe it, because the important thing about it wasn't how many people were there or that it was a lot of truly wonderful music that got played.
When it all started, record companies - and there were many of them, and this was a good thing - were run by people who loved records, people like Ahmet Ertegun, who ran Atlantic Records, who were record collectors. They got in it because they loved music.
Now record companies are run by lawyers and accountants. The shift from the one to the other was definitely related to when the takes started to get big.
The people who run record companies now wouldn't know a song if it flew up their nose and died. They haven't a clue, and they don't care. You tell them that, and they go, Yeah? So, your point is?
I'm an inveterate bookstore wanderer. I read constantly, so I love a good bookstore. I can't help it.
I gave up bread, and I've lost a bunch of weight, which is very good because I'm diabetic.
I can't legislate a song into being; it just will not happen for me.
I love Stephen Stills and Neil Young dearly. We talk all the time. We see each other.
There are a lot of people who look great but can't sing.
I have a pretty clear picture of the whole weight of my life, and there are things that I've done that are good, and I'm proud of them. There are things that I'm really not proud of, and that they, you have to look at me with a perspective, and I try really hard to do that, to keep from thinking I'm cool and ever so smart.
I come from a school of people, folk singers, and the tradition there is troubadours, and you're carrying a message. Now admittedly, our job is partly just to make you boogie, just make you want to dance. Part of our job is to take you on a little voyage, tell you a story.
I think music is a lifting force, I think love is the lifting force in the human condition. I think you see someone loving on their child, and it moves you, and you can't help it. It rings a bell inside of us that elevates us as human beings, and I treasure that. I think it's one of the few great things about human beings.
I do see things that are funny on the net. I Googled myself the other day and found out that I was worth $250m, and that I was the highest-paid guy in show business! I wish so hard it was true. It is, of course, the complete opposite. I'm neither rich nor do I make a lot of money.
I've met Bill Clinton, Obama a couple of times... I certainly didn't meet George Bush, and wouldn't want to.
I get egotistical about things where I can do something well - for example, my singing. Most other things, I don't have the wherewithal to back it up.
When it all started, record companies - and there were many of them, and this was a good thing - were run by people who loved records, people like Ahmet Ertegun, who ran Atlantic Records, who were record collectors. They got in it because they loved music... Now, record companies are run by lawyers and accountants.
Norah Jones is a breath of fresh air. Norah Jones can sing and play. She's got some talent. I was totally ecstatic that that girl got noticed, because she's wonderful.
I gave a Collings dreadnought to a young guitar player in the Valley where I live because he didn't have a good acoustic, and he's a terrific player.
I use a lot of tunings because I listen to a lot of jazz.
When I was 11 years old, my parents wanted me to do something besides get in trouble. So they enrolled me in sailing classes at the Sea Shell Association in Santa Barbara, Calif. From the moment I climbed into that 8-foot dinghy in 1952, I knew instinctively what to do and sensed I had done it before.
I love voyaging - the longest has been 3,000 miles to Hawaii. I've also spent weeks all over the Caribbean.
I would do a Byrds tour or a Byrds record in a minute. I miss that band now. I've tried to convince Roger over and over to do it, but he's not interested. Music isn't something you can legislate into being.
Don't waste the time. Time is the final currency, man. Not money, not power - it's time.Collection: Men
I think ideas are still the most powerful things on the planet, and music is a great way to transmit them.Collection: Powerful
I don't think being angry is useful or healthy, and usually when I get angry, my brain just goes right out the window. Boom, as soon as the adrenaline hits, instant stupid. Just add water and mix.Collection: Stupid
I've been given a gift [musical talent] - don't misuse it. I spent a lot of time just wasting that talent, not treasuring it, not valuing it, not respecting it, just taking it for granted. That was a hard lesson to learn. It doesn't come for free. Don't do that. Treasure it, respect it, treat it as a responsibility that you've been given, and enjoy the hell out of it.Collection: Responsibility
It's hard to bullshit the ocean. It's not listening, you know what I mean.Collection: Ocean
"It can't happen here" is number one on the list of famous last words.Collection: Truth
I'm not givin' in an inch to fear.Collection: Fear
All wars would end immediately if the various chiefs of state dropped a little LSD.Collection: War
Chestnut brown canary, ruby throated sparrow, sing a song, don't be long, thrill me to the marrow.Collection: Song
The stupid thing I incorrectly believed for a long time is that I believed for a long time that some politicians could sometimes tell the truth.Collection: Stupid
I come from a school of people, folk singers, and the tradition there is troubadours, and you're carrying a message. Admittedly, our job is partly just to make you boogie, just make you want to dance. Part of our job is to take you on a little voyage, tell you a story.But part of our job is to communicate the way a town crier did: It's 12:00 and all is well, or it's 11:30 and the whole Congress is sold. It's part of the job.Collection: Jobs
The easiest way to get laid by a girl, or get rid of her, is to write a song about her.Collection: Girl
There has never been a communism that worked. They were all dictatorships or oligarchies, every single one.Collection: Oligarchy
I believe in this country [the USA], I love this country, I believe in the idea of this country, and this country is an idea.Collection: Country
I think music is a lifting force, I think love is the lifting force in the human condition. I think you see someone loving on their child, and it moves you, and you can't help it.Collection: Children
I do like to smoke pot. I think it's good.Collection: Thinking
Largely I write from life. ... I write from what happens to me. Mostly about love. People notice the other stuff more but I write mostly about love.Collection: Music