Roger Waters > Quotes

“Wish You Were Here

So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from Hell,
Blue skys from pain.
Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?

And did they get you to trade
Your heros for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?

How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl,
Year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found?
The same old fears.
Wish you were here.”
― Roger Waters

“I'm in competition with myself and I'm losing.”
― Roger Waters

“We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl,
Year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found?
The same old fears.
Wish you were here.”
― Roger Waters

“All that you touch
All that you see
All that you taste
All you feel.
All that you love
All that you hate
All you distrust
All you save.
All that you give
All that you deal
All that you buy,
beg, borrow or steal.
All you create
All you destroy
All that you do
All that you say.
All that you eat
And everyone you meet
All that you slight
And everyone you fight.
All that is now
All that is gone
All that's to come
and everything under the sun is in tune
but the sun is eclipsed by the moon.

"There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark.”
― Roger Waters

“ashes or diamonds
foe or friend
we're all equal in the end”
― Roger Waters

“Did you see the frightened ones,
Did you hear the falling bombs,
Did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter in the promise of a brave new world unfurlled beaneath the clear blue skies.

Good bye blue skies.”
― Roger Waters

“Not the torturer will scare me, nor the body's final fall, nor the barrels of death's rifles, nor the shadows on the wall, nor the night when to the ground the last dim star of pain, is hurled but the blind indifference of a merciless, unfeeling world.”
― Roger Waters

“CAN YOU FREE YOURSELF ENOUGH TO BE ABLE TO EXPERIENCE THE REALITY OF LIFE AS IT GOES ON BEFORE YOU AND WITH YOU, AND AS YOU GO ON AS PART OF IT? OR NOT? BECAUSE IF YOU CAN’T YOU STAND ON SQUARE ONE, UNTIL YOU DIE.”
― Roger Waters

“Mother do you think they'll drop the bomb?
Mother do you think they'll like this song?
Mother do you think they'll try to break my balls?
Mother should I build the wall?
Mother should I run for president?
Mother should I trust the government?
Mother will they put me in the firing line?
Mother am I really dying?

Hush now baby, baby, dont you cry.
Mother's gonna make all your nightmares come true.
Mother's gonna put all her fears into you.
Mother's gonna keep you right here under her wing.
She wont let you fly, but she might let you sing.
Mama will keep baby cozy and warm.
Ooooh baby ooooh baby oooooh baby,
Of course mama'll help to build the wall.

Mother do you think she's good enough -- to me?
Mother do you think she's dangerous -- to me?
Mother will she tear your little boy apart?
Mother will she break my heart?

Hush now baby, baby dont you cry.
Mama's gonna check out all your girlfriends for you.
Mama wont let anyone dirty get through.
Mama's gonna wait up until you get in.
Mama will always find out where you've been.
Mama's gonna keep baby healthy and clean.
Ooooh baby oooh baby oooh baby,
You'll always be baby to me.

Mother, did it need to be so high?”
― Roger Waters, Pink Floyd: The Wall, Guitar Tablature Edition

“All alone, or in two's,
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the wall.
Some hand in hand
And some gathered together in bands.
The bleeding hearts and artists
Make their stand.

And when they've given you their all
Some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy
Banging your heart against some mad bugger's wall.”
― Roger Waters

“Doctor Doctor what is wrong with me
This supermarket life is getting long
What is the heart life of a colour TV
What is the shelf life of a teenage queen”
― Roger Waters

“Would you like to watch TV
or get between the sheets
and contemplate this violent freeway,
would you like something to eat
would you like to learn to fly
would ya, would you like to see me try”
― Roger Waters

“Hanging on in Quiet Desperation is the English Way”
― Roger Waters

“How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?”
― Roger Waters

“money so they say is the root of all evil today ”
― Roger Waters

“And when they found our shadows
Grouped around the TV sets
They ran down every lead
They repeated every test
They checked out all the data on their lists
And then the alien anthropologists
Admitted they were still perplexed
But on eliminating every other reason
For our sad demise
They logged the only explanation left
This species has amused itself to death”
― Roger Waters

“The Gunner's Dream (From The Final Cut)

Floating down through the clouds
Memories come rushing up to meet me now.
In the space between the heavens
and in the corner of some foreign field
I had a dream.
I had a dream.
Good-bye Max.
Good-bye Ma.
After the service when you're walking slowly to the car
And the silver in her hair shines in the cold November air
You hear the tolling bell
And touch the silk in your lapel
And as the tear drops rise to meet the comfort of the band
You take her frail hand
And hold on to the dream.
A place to stay
Enough to eat
Somewhere old heroes shuffle safely down the street
Where you can speak out loud
About your doubts and fears
And what's more no-one ever disappears
You never hear their standard issue kicking in your door.
You can relax on both sides of the tracks
And maniacs don't blow holes in bandsmen by remote control
And everyone has recourse to the law
And no-one kills the children anymore.
And no one kills the children anymore.

Night after night
Going round and round my brain
His dream is driving me insane.
In the corner of some foreign field
The gunner sleeps tonight.
What's done is done.
We cannot just write off his final scene.
Take heed of his dream.”
― Roger Waters

“No dark sarcasm, in the classroom.”
― Roger Waters

“Not now John, we've gotta get on.
S'cusi dove il bar?
Gotta get on.
Σε παρακαλώ, πού είναι το μπαρ?
Not now John, we've gotta get on.
S'il vous plait ou est le bar?
Gotta get on, gotta get on.
Oy, where's the fucking bar John!

Not now John, we've gotta get on.
Gotta get on, gotta get on.
Hammer! Hammer! Hammer! Hammer! Hammer!”
― Roger Waters

“everything under the sun is in tune but the sun is eclipsed by the moon”
― roger waters

“Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.”
― Mason, Waters, Wright, Gilmour

“What have we here, laddie? Mysterious scribblings? A secret code? Oh, poems, no less! Poems, everybody!”
― Roger Waters

“Did you see the frightened ones?
Did you hear the falling bombs?
Did you ever wonder
Why we had to run for shelter
When the promise of a brave new world
Unfurled beneath the clear blue sky?”
― Roger Waters

“a doctor in Manhattan saved a dying man for free.”
― Roger Waters, Roger Waters - Amused to Death

“Welcome my son
Welcome to the machine
Where have you been?
It's alright we know where you've been

You've been in the pipeline
Filling in time
Provided with toys and scouting for boys
You brought a guitar to punish your ma

And you didn't like school
And you know you're nobody's fool
So welcome to the machine

Welcome my son
Welcome to the machine
What did you dream?
It's alright we told you what to dream

You dreamed of a big star
He played a mean guitar
He always ate in the Steak Bar
He loved to drive in his Jaguar
So welcome to the machine”
― Roger Waters

“Gustavo Solivellas dice: "Hay padres, hermanos, hijos, que salen cada día a luchar y pierden la vida en guerras alrededor del mundo. La política moderna intenta mantener esa noción del "nosotros" y "ellos" con un muro entre medio" (Roger Waters)”
― Roger Waters, Hey You Sheet Music

“We watched the tragedy unfold
We did as we were told, bought and sold
It was the greatest show on Earth
But then it was over
We oohed and ahhed, we drove our racing cars
We ate our last few jars of caviar
And somewhere out there in the stars
A keen-eyed lookout spied a flickering light
Our last hurrah
And when they found our shadows
Grouped 'round the TV sets
They ran down every lead
They repeated every test
They checked out all the data on their list
And then the alien anthropologists
Admitted they were still perplexed
But on eliminating every other reason
For our sad demise
They logged the only explanation left
This species has amused itself to death
No tears to cry
No feelings left
This species has amused itself to death
Amused itself to death”
― Roger Waters, Roger Waters - Amused to Death

“Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long, and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over
Thought I'd something more to say”
― Roger Waters

“Through the fish-eyed lens of tear-stained eyes
I can barely define the shape of this moment in time
and far from flying high in clear blue skies
I'm spiralling down to the hole in the ground where I hide.”
― Roger Waters

“A place to stay
Enough to eat
Somewhere old heroes shuffle safely down the street
Where you can speak out loud
About your doubts and fears
And what's more no one disappears
You never hear their standard issue kicking in your door
You can relax on both sides of the tracks
And maniacs don't blow holes in bandsmen by remote control
And everyone has recourse to the law
And no one kills the children anymore
And no one kills the children anymore”
― Roger Waters