Steven Van Zandt
I need a big picture. I can't just do a collection of songs; that doesn't work for me.
I don't wake up every day and just write to write. I only write with purpose.
You want everybody to like your work, but when you look at what's fashionable or trendy, it's pretty obvious that I don't exactly fit.
I didn't care about anything expect rock & roll. So it's nice that it turned out to be something that you find a way to make a living from.
I did 10 years on 'Sopranos,' but the whole craft of acting is relatively new to me. I'm still learning that, and I'll be learning that forever.
I had the wonderful good luck of having Jimmy Gandolfini as my mentor and David Chase as my godfather, two of the most talented guys in the history of television.
As an actor just learning the craft, you literally do a scene with Jimmy Gandolfini, and you walk away a better actor.
'Sopranos' was a fascinating moment, just catching our whole culture by surprise, a fun ride to be on while I'm learning the craft.
My mother remarried when I was young, and my stepfather adopted me.
Touch the earth, speak of love, walk on common ground.Collection: Earth
Anytime you spend six months on a song (Born to Run), there's something not exactly going right. A song should take about three hours.Collection: Running
I was in the back of the car with my girlfriend, the Rascals came on the radio and I realized their song was sexier than the sex I was trying to have.Collection: Song
I have a bigger mission than any kind of specific politics, which is trying to restore the accessibility of rock 'n' roll.Collection: Rocks
Half of the acting I do is actually done by the hair.Collection: Hair
You have to love what you're doing in order to find the energy.Collection: Order
Rock'n'roll as a genre is different from pop and hip hop: it is about bands, and that for me suggests brotherhood, family, friendship and community.Collection: Genre Is
I have lost a brother and a best friend. The world has lost one of the greatest actors of all time.Collection: Brother
I am a reformed Taoist, part-time Buddhist, Hindu, animist, pagan, Jewish mystic, and Christian. I always got along great with priests and rabbis and mullahs and gurus, even though I spend most of my life constructively criticizing them.Collection: Christian
As most of the population suffers through life, barely surviving, disappointed and confused day after day, hopeless, wondering what happened to their strong and beautiful country, it is in the medias power to restore, if not some of our quality of life, at least a bit of our peace of mind.Collection: Beautiful
I didn't make that much money... Once I joined Bruce (Springsteen), I took a huge pay cut.Collection: Cutting
Enuff Z'nuff is one of the most underrated bands in the world!Collection: Band
From the age of 14, 13, I guess I wanted to be a rock 'n' roll star. And that was it. I wanted to make a living playing rock 'n' roll, and it was a ridiculously impossible dream at that time. But it was kind of all I ever wanted to do. It's nice to do it.Collection: Dream
I'm not pretending to be an academic, or to have this down to a science. It's strictly my taste. But there is a connection between everything I play and the sets I put together.Collection: Play
I think it's important that all 50 years of rock 'n' roll live in the same place, because it's all connected.Collection: Thinking
Ive always considered the government taking one out of every two dollars I earn absolute tyranny.Collection: Government
We never understood the concept of people going onstage and giving anything less than 100 percent. Maybe that's a blue-collar work ethic, but I call it just ethics.Collection: Work
The quality of our lives is diminished every time we lose a great artist.Collection: Artist
Being a rock 'n' roll star ain't a part-time gig.Collection: Stars
Rock music had become my religion. Radio my church. And these DJs my priests, rabbis and gurus.Collection: Rocks
Rock 'n' roll is a participatory sport. It ain't passive. It ain't TV. Go out there and rock 'n' roll and dance and have fun.Collection: Sports
I'd never go onstage in my life without fully intending to do the best show you've ever seen.Collection: Shows
We're a little lazy about spirituality in this country.Collection: Country