Phil Collins > Quotes

“In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.”
― Phil Collins

“Put your faith in what you most believe in.”
― Phil Collins, Disney's Tarzan: Easy Piano

“Love can make you do things that you never thought possible.”
― Phil Collins

“Beyond a certain point, the music isn't mine anymore. It's yours.”
― Phil Collins

“Love can make you do things that you never thought possible”
― Phil Collins

“The world is in your hands, now use it.”
― Phil Collins

“In learning we teach and in teaching we learn.”
― Phil Collins

“I'll be there for you always
Always and always
Just look over your shoulder
I'll be there, always.”
― Phil Collins, Disney's Tarzan: Easy Piano

“Why can't they understand the way we feel? They just don't trust what they can't explain. I know we're different, but deep inside us we're not that different at all.”
― Phil Collins, You'll Be in My Heart

“Out of raw emotion emerges instinctive truth.”
― Phil Collins, Not Dead Yet: The Memoir

“Just look over your shoulder...I'll be there always.”
― Phil Collins, Disney's Tarzan: Easy Piano

“not being able to read music is absolutely liberating for me. It gives me a wider musical vocabulary. There”
― Phil Collins, Not Dead Yet: The Memoir

“People hate a break-up, but they love a break-up song.”
― Phil Collins, Not Dead Yet: The Memoir

“I'll be there for you, always
Always and always
Just look over your shoulder
I'll be there, always.”
― Phil Collins, Disney's Tarzan: Easy Piano

“It takes some going to live next door to Keith Richards and be classed as the rowdy neighbor. No, I’m not proud.”
― Phil Collins, Not Dead Yet: The Memoir

“I wanna know, can you show me
I wanna know 'bout these
Strangers Like Me
Tell me more, please show me
Something's familiar 'bout these
Strangers Like Me”
― Phil Collins, Disney's Tarzan: Easy Piano

“Well, shall we play Phil the song first?” No one says that.”
― Phil Collins, Not Dead Yet: The Memoir

“In the Air Tonight” is 99.9 percent sung spontaneously, the words dreamt up from out of nowhere”
― Phil Collins, Not Dead Yet: The Memoir

“And now I realize: I was fired. They didn’t disappear to watch football, or do drugs. They were getting rid of me.”
― Phil Collins, Not Dead Yet: The Memoir

“Because he has a flatmate, I have no option but to share Trevor’s bed. Terrified, I try to sleep, fitfully and fully dressed on top of the blankets. Presently, the fidgeting begins, and soon a hand is creeping over. I’m out of there quicker than you can say “paradiddle.”
― Phil Collins, Not Dead Yet: The Memoir

“When he isn’t drumming with The Who, Moonie seems to like playing barman in La Chasse. I buy a round from him one night, and he gives me back more money than I’d handed over. Another reason to love him.”
― Phil Collins, Not Dead Yet: The Memoir

“Mick Jagger does it and, well, of course he does—he’s Mick. Phil Collins does it and what an arsehole.”
― Phil Collins, Not Dead Yet: The Memoir

“Resuming normal service: at Barbara Speake’s I meet two girls who will play significant and ongoing roles in my life, personal and professional, for a long time hereafter. Over the span of my teenage years either I’m going out with Lavinia Lang or I’m going out with Andrea Bertorelli. The three of us seem to date on heavy rotation, and that back-and-forth will reverberate down the decades.”
― Phil Collins, Not Dead Yet: The Memoir

“In these post-Andy dog days of ’79, robbed of any Genesis distractions, I visit Hurtwood Edge most days, often staying into the night. I befriend all of Eric’s Ripley pals, friends from his teenage years. We often travel en masse up to London to see football matches at Tottenham and West Ham, though Eric is a diehard West Brom fan.”
― Phil Collins, Not Dead Yet: The Memoir

“Few people before or since have enjoyed a hugely successful solo career concurrent with a hugely successful band career.”
― Phil Collins, Not Dead Yet: The Memoir

“It’s around this time that Adrian Selby’s poor bookkeeping catches up with us and we discover that Genesis are in debt to the tune of £150,000. A fortune in those days, around £2 million in today’s money. But we still say no to the biggest bit of TV promotion in the land. This is where Tony Smith enters the picture. Just to clarify: he’s not to be confused with Tony Stratton-Smith. Strat was our manager, and also boss of our label, Charisma. He’d kick-started things and kept Genesis rolling for a good while, but inevitably that created a conflict of interest when it came to negotiations between manager and record company. So although we all love and trust him, we have to be businesslike and consider our future. Especially when there are eye-watering debts to consider.”
― Phil Collins, Not Dead Yet: The Memoir

“I go home and report back to Andy. “Darling, great news—Genesis have a fantastic chance to make some serious inroads in America…” To me, the professional logic of touring our arses off for the best part of a year is impeccable. The emotional, personal, matrimonial logic? Let’s say I am perhaps less clear on that front. Andy’s response can be paraphrased thus: “Well, if you do that, we’re not going to be together this time next year.”
― Phil Collins, Not Dead Yet: The Memoir

“Unfortunately, I don’t have enough detailed memories of my dad, happy or otherwise. What images I have, I later put in a song, “All of My Life,” on my 1989 album …But Seriously: Dad coming home from work, changing out of his suit, sitting down to dinner, and then an evening watching TV with just his pipe for company. Mum’s gone out; I’m upstairs playing records. Recalling that scenario now, I’m overwhelmed with sadness. There are so many things I could have asked my dad; if only I’d known I’d be just twenty-one when he died. Simply, there wasn’t much intimacy or dialogue between us. Maybe I’ve blotted out the memories. Maybe they don’t exist.”
― Phil Collins, Not Dead Yet: The Memoir

“Cue that Melody Maker advert in July 1970—by which time Tony, Mike and Peter have been through a lot in their seven years of friendship and music-making.”
― Phil Collins, Not Dead Yet: The Memoir

“During this time Steve’s frustration has also become apparent. He’s released his solo album, but rather than reduce the pressure, it’s increased it. He wants to have more songs on the Genesis albums. One man’s meat is another man’s poison: the new configuration of Genesis has unexpectedly thrown up new songwriting avenues, and while I’m feeling increasingly confident as a writer, Steve still isn’t getting the creative space he believes he deserves.”
― Phil Collins, Not Dead Yet: The Memoir