Ric Ocasek
I love walking down the street and seeing faces and drama and happiness and sadness and dirt and cleanliness.Collection: Happiness
Refusing to ask for help when you need it is refusing someone the chance to be helpful.Collection: Chance
I think bands, when they're on the road, they keep their sanity by developing an internal sense of humor.Collection: Humor
Secrecy is the enemy of efficiency, but don't let anyone know it.
There's more to light than the opposite of dark.
People are strange. We're all morticians. Hey, what's on TV?
I've never been on a water slide in my life.
As a songwriter, oddly enough, my influences were people like Bob Dylan, The Velvet Underground, and Buddy Holly. Some psychedelic stuff, too.
People tell me all the time that I look forbidding or aloof. That doesn't bother me much - I am fairly private, withdrawn, and... distant, I guess. But, um, I think that's okay.
Never mind a world that can't see past brutality.
Sometimes you want to run away, sometimes you think you do, but you never had a dream like this before and you don't want to ask for more, sometimes you leave a mark before you know the score.
I could never be a country person, sitting around trees trying to write a song. I would rather be in the middle of society, whether it's growing or crumbling.
They're caught where there's no way out or where you can't see out. What are you going to do about it? I don't have the answer. If I did there would be no insane asylums.
The most important thing to a lot of people, is to belong to something that's hip or whatever. To be a part of something that's not society, just a clique.
Once they're on paper, they're gone. I like to do as much with the words, as far as image goes.
Your high points and your low points. High points don't last that long, it's a high and it happens. It's great at the moment but you really can't live on it.
I often write songs, and when I do, I usually write quite a few of them. I really have to be in the mood.
People sometimes say that bands sound like The Cars, but when I hear it I don't know if they do or not.
When I produce other people, that's the thing I can do well because I've been in a band, and I can play the political game and make everybody feel happy, and I can check their performances, and I can work on the sound while they're being a band.
The creative part for me is making songs, and that's what I really love the most, and that's what I've always done for every band I've ever had.
There are a lot of bands that have a huge appeal, but I don't understand why. Guns n' Roses. U2. But you know, that's just my thing. Music is pretty personal.
I don't think I'm an entertainer. I never think, 'Wow, I can't wait to get the crowd moving.' Some of my favorite bands never moved an inch.
I've always been a fan of poetry. I grew up with Lawrence Ferlinghetti and the Beat poets. I really followed that stuff for a while. I just love the way people threw words around like they were painting.
I'm not proud of the lyrics to 'Shake It Up.'
I didn't feel like gymnastics were part of The Cars. I certainly philosophically didn't want to prod the audience to react to anything. To me, it was more like negative theater. We didn't really talk to the audience. I didn't see that being a part of this band.
I've been in a band, so I understand the politics. Sometimes the bass player doesn't like what the guitar player is doing, and you have to sort of even that out.
When you become tired of fitting in, is when you truly become yourselfCollection: Tired
The best thing you can do for a song is to hear it on the radio and to imagine what it could mean to you and then kinda forget the words. Just imagine how you felt when you heard it, if it was one of your songs. If it became one of your songs. If it meant whatever it meant for you and as soon as you see the visual, you get a rapid eye movement relationship with the song instead of an imaginative one. I think that can be dangerous because I don't think I'd want to be listening to a song on the radio and thinking about the video. Whatever that one interpretation wasCollection: Song
The most important thing to a lot of people, is to belong to something that's hip or whatever. To be a part of something that's not society, just a clique. And they get real sidetracked trying to think like everyone else. They don't realize that you have to motivate yourself to do things you want to do. Some people just like going along for the ride. And those are the kind of people I don't get along with too well.Collection: Real
You almost have to force yourself to stay in a vacuum to become different - if you really want to be different.Collection: Different
If you want to talk about it, I got the time When you're looking so enchanted, you cover my mind If you think I'll wait forever, maybe you're right There's no such thing as now or never, there's only twilightCollection: Time
I've been in a band, so I understand the politics. Sometimes the bass player doesn't like what the guitar player is doing, and you have to sort of even that out. But I've also always loved the technology part of it. I've always loved the studio part. Making albums. Besides writing songs, which has been my primary thing, making records would be second. Obviously, touring would be third. Touring wasn't my favorite thing to do, but the first few tours were pretty fun. Seeing the world and everything.Collection: Song
Once they're on paper, they're gone. I like to do as much with the words, as far as image goes, so that it's really left open for a lot of things, even though I remember a specific impression of something I had at the time. I can't say a song is about this or that; in fact, I wouldn't even want to. I just prefer to have people live it anyway they want. Because it's theirs after that. There's nothing I can do about it anymoreCollection: Song
Oh oh it's magic, when I'm with you, oh oh it's magic, you know it's true, got a hold on you.Collection: Magic
They're caught where there's no way out or where you can't see out. What are you going to do about it? I don't have the answer. If I did there would be no insane asylums. But I see a lot of people, a lot of my friends in the same predicament. Many times in my life, I was there myself.Collection: People
Sometimes you want to run away Sometimes you think you do But you never had a dream like this before And you don't want to ask for more Sometimes you leave a mark Before you know the scoreCollection: Running
I think I understand what bands want, just from having made records myself. I understand what it takes to get a good vocal sound, or to make people comfortable in the studio. From minor things like their headphone mix - and if a singer's singing, how they should hear themselves - to how to make people feel that they're getting exactly what they want. All those things, I think, are an advantage, especially the part about having done it myself. I'm not just an engineer who records the sounds well. I'm not afraid to take chances.Collection: Thinking
If I would have been in a different world Like I frequently am when I see you Oh I might have missed All the ways you try to give If only you knew what you do to me Sometimes I think about eternity If it would have been another time I wonder what you would of had in mindCollection: Time
Never mind a world That can't see past brutality Answers are getting the gas Live gestures Have constantly been used As weaponsCollection: Past