In honor of Paul Simon’s birthday, here are a few memorable quotes from the last few decades.
- “I was eating in a Chinese restaurant downtown. There was a dish called ‘Mother and Child Reunion.’ It’s chicken and eggs. And I said, ‘Oh, I love that title. I got to use that one.’” —Rolling Stone, 1972
- “Simon and Garfunkel had a peculiar type of groupie. We had the poetic groupies. The girls that followed us around weren’t necessarily looking to sleep with us as much as they were looking to read their poetry or discuss literature or play their own songs.” —Rolling Stone, 1972
- “Artie and I shared responsibility but not creativity. Musically, it was hard to keep the balance because I wrote the music and he only sang it. It fell out of balance as a team; it was always falling out of balance. We were always trying to prop it up.” —New York Times, 1982
- “‘Still Crazy After All These Years’ is a title about which I’ve often thought—‘Did I make that up?’ It seems like it’s such a familiar phrase. We’ve seen it in so many permutations—still this after all these years, still that after all these years. Like ‘50 ways to do this,’ or ‘bridge over that.’ So that came as a phrase and the melody at the same time. The song is a bit darker than people think. Because the chorus and the phrase are so suggestive of a long time passing, it has a touch of the ‘Auld Lang Syne’ to it. I don’t think people pay attention to the lyrics of the song, which makes me feel I probably wrote the wrong lyric to it.” —Q, 1993
- “I would be willing to do almost—that word is important—almost anything to make Art happy. I care about our friendship. The only thing I feel I won’t do is change the essence of my work.” —Playboy, 1983
- “As soon as your mind knows that it’s on and it’s supposed to produce some lines, either it doesn’t or it produces things that are very predictable. And that’s why I say I’m not interested in writing something that I thought about. I’m interested in discovering where my mind wants to go, or what object it wants to pick up.” —Songtalk, 1991
- “A lot of talent is a gift, but a lot is also luck. I’m very aware of that. I was born in the right place at the right time. I am also blessed because I’ve never been a sex symbol. I’m spared the embarrassment of acting young.” —Associated Press, 1993
Excerpts from Performing Songwriter Issue 96, Sept/Oct 2006
PDF of Paul Simon Interview
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