Mark Knopfler
My idea of heaven is a place where the Tyne meets the Delta, where folk music meets the blues.Collection: Music
The 'music industry' is not a term I use. I tend to concentrate on music, and the music business is something different.Collection: Business
I don't like definitions, but if there is a definition of freedom, it would be when you have control over your reality to transform it, to change it, rather than having it imposed upon you. You can't really ask for more than.Collection: Freedom
I don't know whether your heart ever necessarily changes, but time changes the way that you perceive the world. And you just hope it gives you more empathy and all those other things.Collection: Hope
There happened to be guitar classes at the college, and there was a guitar teacher there with whom I used to play. In addition, I also would go out into country schools and teach little kids basic guitar and singing a few times a week.Collection: Teacher
The music just tends to be a vehicle for that poetry.Collection: Poetry
Whenever a political regime or religious establishment refuses to tolerate criticism, it advertises itself as repressive, backward, and insecure.
Each song has its own secret that's different from another song, and each has its own life. Sometimes it has to be teased out, whereas other times it might come fast. There are no laws about songwriting or producing. It depends on what you're doing, not just who you're doing.
We used to play in a theater club in London called The King's Head. When the theater let nut, around 10:00 P.M., we'd be ready to go and really get it on for about an hour or so.
While listening, to things like western swing, for instance, I'd work something out in my head, then play it on my National; not the same song, but one that captured the feeling of the original tune.
While I was into many different types of music, and played with many different local groups, I really didn't have a band to call my own until Dire Straits was formed in 1977.
What I always try to do is to respond to the song; I've always rebelled against theory.
I'm not a collector, however, and I have no desire to own 50 or 60 guitars.
I'm also getting an Ovation Legend, because I like them so much.
I was into playing American music, especially the blues.
I love Gibsons, and Nationals, too. There's something magical about them.
I just want to be able to play and make people feel good with what I do. When you're thinking that way, anything can happen. And, usually, what happens is good.
I even played bass for a while. Besides playing electric guitar, I'd also get asked to play some acoustic stuff. But, since I didn't have an acoustic guitar at the time, I used to borrow one from a friend so I could play folk joints.
Every guitar I own gets used and has its purpose.
After a while, though, the group just wasn't a good vehicle for the songs I'd written.
I don't know that I read more than the average person. I don't think I do very much. I tend to read more when I'm on holiday. That's when I can go through books like you wouldn't believe. I read a bit of everything, but the novel has always been very important to me.
For me, songwriting is really where it's at. I turn to use the guitar just to help me write the songs. That's it. As a result, my guitar playing suffers pretty horribly.
I actually spend as much time listening to new music as to old. Probably more. I just try to get something out of it all.
I like to buy records for people, make a present of the music.
If you feel that you're not getting enough out of a song, change the instrument - go from an acoustic to an electric or vice versa, or try an open tuning. Do something to shake it up.
I still enjoy playing some of those early Straits songs, and I'm proud of what we did, and certainly we had some great times. It's what we all wanted when we were kids. But you've got to have the resilience to ride that thing, to pick up that ball and run with it. Because you will keep picking it up and keep running.
If you're thinking the road ahead is a little shorter than the one behind you, you're thinking about trying to write a good song and hoping to make a decent record of it.
I just try to stay fit. That's important - just to try to stay physically fit so you can go out there and play. You do need to be in reasonable shape.
I did learn eventually - perhaps far too late - to respect the talent I have. For a lot of years out there, I was just bashing on to the next thing and not really thinking about it too much. That's what we do. But I'm learning to appreciate the moment.
Instead of receding, the past actually becomes more important. That's what will happen to you. It sounds unlikely, but the past actually changes complexion as you get older.
I canceled the Russian shows because, from the days of the first Dire Straits album, I've supported Amnesty International. It's not a good thing to read about people being jailed for no reason, so I raised my hand and made a small objection. It was good to do - but where do you stop?
I had a lot of jobs before I got into music. When I was 15, I was a copy boy for the 'Evening Chronicle' in Newcastle. Then I was a journalist. I value those experiences - I got to see how the world works.
There's so many different worlds, so many different suns. And we have just one world, but we live in different ones.Collection: Diversity
As far as being a 'player's player,' you've only got to go to Nashville or Argentina and you can forget about it. The world is full of amazing guitar players, and you know it, and I know it...it's a humbling experience.Collection: Music
Sometimes you're the windshield; sometimes you're the bug.Collection: Funny
I shoulda learned to play the guitar.Collection: Guitar
Sometimes you gotta be an s.o.b., you wanna make a dream realityCollection: Motivational
When you point your finger 'cause your plan fell through You got three more fingers pointing back at you!Collection: Three
Then came the churches, then came the schools, then came the lawyers, then came the rules.Collection: School
A Strat was a thing of wonder .. when I was 14 or 15, the Shadows were a big influence, and they had the first Strats that came to England. I like to play all kinds of guitars, but I wasn't getting the sound I really wanted until I got a StratocasterCollection: Music
I left for the same reasons everyone leaves jobs that are no longer fulfilling their hopes and aspirations. I didn't see myself spending the rest of my life being a strummer for someone else's dreams. Whatever the opposite of regret is best describes how I've always felt about that decision - it opened me up to a million creative opportunities I needed to experience away from the bullshit and distorting mirrors that fame engenders.Collection: Dream
The music you make is shaped by what you play it on ... if you feel that you're not getting enough out of a song, change the instrument - go from an acoustic to an electric or vice versa, or try an open tuning ... do something to shake it up.Collection: Music
Juliet, when we made love, you used to cry. You said, "I love you like the stars above, I'll love you 'til I die". There's a place for us, you know the movie song. When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?Collection: Song
My playing is fairly straightforward, really, and everything's pretty much standard no frills or special effects.Collection: Special
I don't really think of Dire Straits as a sound, you know. It. just depends on the song, and the stuff we're doing is so varied.Collection: Song
There's so many different worlds.Collection: Different
I bad a piano long before I bad a guitar, and the practice I got just playing those three chords in a basic 12-bar blues song was very important.Collection: Song
Well, I was born in Scotland and spent the first six years of my life there. Then I went to Newcastle-On-Tyne in northeast England, close to Scotland.Collection: Years
I used to go to the school folk club with my songs when I was only 13 or so and say "this is a traditional folk song" and sing it with a bad Irish accent to disguise the real source.Collection: Song