Steven Wilson > Quotes

“I'm tired of everyone
And that includes myself”
― Steven Wilson, Steven Wilson: To The Bone

“often there is a thin line between the notion of ‘high’ and ‘low’ art, the cool and the uncool.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“making something exotic out of the mundane, which is what a lot of art is anyway.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“Art inhabits a strange netherworld where it’s not supposed to be about making a certain product to fulfil a certain requirement. It’s always been my belief that artists are supposed to be selfish and follow their own paths, because if they don’t they risk becoming ‘entertainers’, which is what I believe Miles was referring to.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“collaborating means you have a combination of personalities and influences, a Gestalt entity, in that respect. Not just the ideas from one person, but a melting pot of ideas from two or more.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“Human beings are capable of such amazing things. I think a lot of what’s driven me as a musician is something to do with this, to touch other people with what I do has given me such a strong sense of purpose and motivation. The organic connection between the person that creates something and the person moved by it is a profoundly magical thing.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“What did I want to achieve? Porcupine Tree had begun as a fun project with zero expectations; money and fame were never motivating factors, just a passion to make records and share music.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“The music media tends to be either looking for something new to champion, to place them ahead of the curve, or they stick with the big established artists.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“As an artist, you are involved in how your work is displayed, formatted, presented, experienced.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“What I mean when I say I’m a fan is that I like what an artist has created enough to be interested in what else they might have done and what they might do next.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“No matter how good something might be, after a while it simply becomes boring having to paint the same picture every night.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“I was too lazy to learn about anything properly. With something new the first thing I do is to ignore the manual and just start fiddling. Or I learn just enough to be able to do what I want with it.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“people can and want to engage with more unusual and unexpected subject matter when it’s done as brilliantly as this. I want to say the same about the music world, but I’m not sure I can.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“this was a cheerless place, where graduated ex-gamers were taking over the world with cryptocurrencies, gig economies and smartphone apps. Would-be lion tamers.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“Being a solo artist is like being single: you can – musically speaking – sleep around with whomever you want. It keeps things fresh and interesting, stops you relying on your own clichés, and allows you to reinvent yourself on a regular basis.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“This idea that music can be endlessly recycled and twisted into new shapes from almost any source material lends itself perfectly to the context of collaboration, essentially creating music by ‘file swapping’.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“during his whole professional career he never moved into management. He wasn’t the kind to socialise or suck up to people, so he was never considered for that kind of role. I can’t imagine him enjoying it anyway: he wanted to be creative, not doing job appraisals or juggling budgets. Dad: ‘Most bosses are not worthy of your respect, they get promoted because they are not capable of doing anything truly useful.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“The struggle to strike a balance between artistic integrity and making a good living from music often seems like an unachievable dream, and these books are testament to that.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“I could say that about every album to some degree, they are all one step in a constantly evolving journey).”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“I really liked the idea that this was the kind of music that someone would make on a lazy day off, chilled out, unselfconscious.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“You write about love a lot in your music. Yes I do, but in fairly oblique ways. The wonderful thing about the love song is it’s infinitely reinventible. You’d think by now there would be nothing new left to say about love. I’m constantly amazed to discover that it’s not the case.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“Artists can be a volatile mix of sensitivity, charm and narcissism. You might say most of them are ‘on the spectrum’. At least a lot of the great ones seem to be, so maybe that’s why I can’t say I’m great.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“To some degree I look on the world of rock music now like a deserted playground. The kids that used to play there have long since grown up and departed, but no new kids have come along to replace them. Meanwhile those grown-up kids still come back to the playground from time to time, mostly out of a sense of nostalgia. And when they do, they want it to be exactly the way they left it.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“The truth is it’s easy to make music, but very hard to invest it with a unique grain and personality, qualities that might make it appealing to someone other than just the person that made it.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“I’ve been reading about music almost as long as I’ve been listening to it.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“I’ve found writing a kind of exorcism of that side of me, like an unburdening. Listeners seem to respond to these sad songs in much the same way I respond to sad songs. They don’t make me depressed, quite the opposite. They help me understand I’m not alone in experiencing these things, and that is a beautiful thing, finding comfort through seeing yourself reflected back in the mirror of art.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“Maybe this book is my attempt to explain all of this to myself. For me to understand me, and in doing so share whatever I find out with you. I wonder if anything will be left when we’re done, or will I evaporate in a cloud of me-myself-and-I vanity?”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“The chain of that permanently shifting connection between the artist and the fan can lay heavy for sure. In this case so heavy it made you sick. There is a layer of unreality involved in it, that’s part of the fun.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“Professionalism is sometimes the most boring thing of all and you need to relocate the amateur in you.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One

“You’re working with lots of different artists, doing lots of different projects. That is the modern way now; it is not ‘here’s my masterpiece’ every two years, it’s here’s ‘me’ pretty much all the time.”
― Steven Wilson, Limited Edition of One