Dave Matthews Quotations

For me, in songwriting, I have a route I can take. Maybe there's some forks, I can go this way, this way. But I know those roads. I still have the experience behind me.

I think I'm probably a very sad man wrapped in a very joyful package, and I think I'm very resilient, and I think I'm quite generous, sometimes to a fault. And I'm very bad with money, but I don't see that too much of a flaw.

We have to be active about kindness and about peace. I've always fantasized that it would be great if there was a Department of Peace.

There's a freedom to being young that is harder to come by as time goes on.

We give the podium to a lot of people who shouldn't have the podium. The message that's delivered the loudest and in the most entertaining way is the one that we're going to put on because that's what we want. We want ratings more than we want to deliver information. That's just where the culture's gotten.

Tomorrow is no place to place your better days.

I'll lean on you and you lean on me and we'll be okay.

Nothing is black or white, nothing's 'us or them.' But then there are magical, beautiful things in the world. There's incredible acts of kindness and bravery, and in the most unlikely places, and it gives you hope.

A friend is always good to have, but a lover's kiss is better than angels raining down on me.

The world and the universe are far more wonderful if there's not a puppet master.

I do still get shocked every once in a while when I catch my reflection when I'm walking past a glass building, but it's in my mind about getting older and finding out what I'm going to look like as it unfolds - or as it folds, depending on where the marks and scars land.

Good music is good music, and everything else can go to hell.

A guy and a girl can be just friends, but at one point or another, they will fall for each other... maybe temporarily, maybe at the wrong time, maybe too late, or maybe forever.

The saddest part of the human race is we're obsessed with this idea of 'us and them,' which is really a no-win situation, whether it's racial, cultural, religious or political.

Take what you can from your dreams, make them as real as anything.

The reason I play music is to touch people - for selfish reasons, as well. It feels good to make someone else feel something, whether it's a kiss, a painting, good idea or it's a song.

The idea of God as a fatherly figure who looks down on us and worries about how we're doing or takes sides when we have fights - it's more irritating than Santa Claus. The world and the universe are far more wonderful if there's not a puppet master.

I've never been much of a craftsman, in an educated way. But I think just the experience of writing makes the avenues I follow a little more efficient in some ways. At the same time, when you're young, you're a little more fearless, and there's less of an internal critic.

In so many areas of life, I'm a spaz and incompetent.

I never went to college - I barely got out of high school.

We've never played at this place before. This place is big, and I'm kinda nervous, so we're going to make it feel small by pretending we're in a... bedroom. We'll hang off the edge of the bed, take off our shoes and get naked!

I'm a bit of a caveman - I don't go out into the digital space very often. I lie facedown on the grass and count how many bugs I can find.

I don't believe in trickle-down economics. I don't think that people who have the most are inclined to share it, generally.

I can't believe that we would lie in our graves wondering if we had spent our living days well. I can't believe that we would lie in our graves dreaming of things that we might have been.

Being able to scream at the top of my lungs in front of people is very therapeutic. It is a great gift for me to be able to do that.

Success turns a lot of people off. I have a pretty solid sense of joy and respect that irritates people, and can irritate me, too.

When I look at how fortunate I've been, being a musician... my response to being overpaid is that I should pay it back to my community in some way.

I think we should all talk to our enemies and talk to our friends. Talk! That's the only way we'll find solutions.

It's funny, I get a little quieter with time. I don't want to chase my tail and one day repeat myself and repeat myself and one day have kids going to college and not have memories that I should, because I was too busy doing my thing.

A lot of the time, I write a lot of angry stuff, but then I don't want to be a finger-pointer - I'd rather be a cheerleader than a judge. I don't want to preach as if I'm in some position of righteousness, but I do want to speak my mind and scream at the clouds and shout out of the pit of hopelessness that I sometimes think the human race is in.

How could I have been anyone other than me?

I'm familiar with that feeling of silence that comes with a very imminent catastrophe, when you know you have absolutely no control over a situation.

I think I am a very kind person. I think I'm joyful, but I could be kinder and I could be more joyful. I do believe peace is a state of grace, and not the absence of violence.

I'm a fairly tormented artist, and I'm less willing to indulge myself in self-pity, outside of songwriting.

I fear that our true motivation is about oil and our own flailing economy; about the failure to destroy Al Qaeda and about revenge.

I was regularly advised not to go into music, that I should give up that foolish dream.

When I listen to my favorite songwriters, they have such simple melodies and chords. I occasionally manage to stop at the right time, but all too often I keep on going until I have way too many notes and words. But that's just what I do.

We look to our leaders once we elect them to either lead us in the right direction or at least not crush us.

South Africa gives me a perspective of what's real and what's not real. So I go back to South Africa to both lose myself and gain awareness of myself. Every time I go back, it doesn't take long for me to get caught into a very different thing. A very different sense of myself.

The idea that we're somehow centrally important to the planet's existence is pretty comical - although I'd like us to be.

I found there's a fairly blatant racism in America that's already there, and I don't think I noticed it when I lived here as a kid. But when I went back to South Africa, and then it's sort of thrust in your face, and then came back here - I just see it everywhere.

My songs are like a three-legged dog - you have to get to know them to have any love for them.

I definitely like the oddballs. There's a song called 'Little Thing,' which is the only song that I have recorded that has no words. And it's the one that I get past my critic inside me.

If I find something I like, I'll chase it and see what comes out the other side. Once a song gets momentum and gets away from you, that's a good sign.

So often we talk about saving the planet, but what we really mean is to save the planet the way it is, so we can live here. So that is can sustain us.

There's war - there's always been war, as long as most of us have been alive. There have always been people being abused, there's always been horrible things in the world. Why are we outraged? We should just be quiet and figure it out, and work it out together.

When I write the set, I try to create something that will not only be interesting for the audience, but will have a flow for the band, too, so we don't get boring.

I don't think everything is going to get peachy ever. But I think we have to fight for what we believe in.

I don't think socialism, and I don't think warmness and respect are necessarily bad words.

Being a white South African, I enjoyed the better things that that country gave to a small percentage of its population.

I find a therapy in playing music, in many different ways.

I think some people would say that I do overwhelm the words with the music, and sometimes thank goodness I do.

I use God in my songs a lot but I don't have a relationship. I don't know what that means.

I want to figure out a way to not be stupid with money, then make a whole bunch of it, then I want to move to Outer Mongolia. I want to milk a yak. Maybe I'll just settle for a cow.

I'm from a very politically and socially conscious family. My mother always made a point of making us look at what was going on around us and take stock of our part in it.

I hope that just what I sing about and how I relate to my audience is as much of a political statement as I need to make.

I've always been obsessed by visual art as I have been by music personally, but that doesn't mean anything professionally.

It's a melting pot, southern Africa. You find these cultural collisions that result in art and music, and it's pretty amazing.

Well, I've been in a few car wrecks.

I go back to South Africa at least once a year, sometimes twice, and usually for a month. And probably, I'm guessing, I'll spend more time back there as I get older.

It is criminal to put our servicemen and women in harm's way and to put the lives of so many civilians on the line for the misguided frustrations of the Bush administration.

Celebrate we will because life is short but sweet for certain we're climbing two by two to be sure these days continue.

Celebrate we will because life is short but sweet for certain we're climbing two by two to be sure these days continue.

He's a great player. He's playing more direct roots music. I think his music's great, you can relax to him.

Yorke's lyrics make me want to give up. I could never in my wildest dreams find something as beautiful as they find for a single song - let alone album after album.

When you can no longer differentiate between the insanity spewed onto the blank page, and the madness evident in the all-but shattered mirror...that's when you know you're doing it right.

Oh look at how she listens She says nothing of what she thinks She just goes stumbling through her memories Staring out on to Grey Street

Satellite in my eyes Like a diamond in the sky How I wonder Satellite strung from the moon And the world your balloon Peeping Tom for the mother station

Nothing is here to stay Everything has to begin and end A ship in a bottle won't sail All we can do is dream that the wind will blow us across the water A ship in a bottle set sail

Out of the darkness comes light like a flash You think you can, you think you can Sometimes that is the problem Dream little darling dream

She runs up into the light surprised Her arms are opened Her mind's eye is Seeing things from a better side than most can dream

If you hold on tight to what you think is your thing you may find you re missing all the rest

Don’t you rob yourself of what you’re feeling; don’t rob yourself of all that you could be.

Everyday should be a good day to die

You seek up an emotion and your cup is overflowing, you seek up an emotion sometimes your well is dry

So I watched the Pink Panther last night, and so I'm trying desperately to be funny, and then it's just not working out so good... I wonder if maybe I could've been a comedian or something like that, or maybe I could've been a doctor, then I wouldn't have to make anyone laugh.

Love, you drive me to distraction.

We have to do much more than believe if we really want to change things.

I'm not going to change my ways just to please you, or appease you

Every day things change, but basically they stay the same

I find sometimes it's easy to be myself, sometimes I find it's better to be somebody else.

Remember that there are hundreds of thousands of things you can eat that are not cheese.

She thinks, "Hey, How did I come to this? I dream myself a thousand times around the world, But I can't get out of this place"

Goodnight moon. Sweet dreams. Smile kindly upon this little blue gum ball of us while we sleep.

Don't lose the dreams inside your head They'll only be there until you're dead Dream

Lying on the roof counting the stars that fill the sky I wonder if Someone in the heavens looking back down on me I'll never know So much space to believe

Turns out, not where, but who you're with that really matters.

I hate to admit it, but we're badass.

I think we have to be active in teaching our children, and teaching each other. We have to be active about kindness and about peace. I've always fantasized that it would be great if there was a Department of Peace. We have a military, but what if there was a department devoted entirely and truthfully to finding peaceful resolutions?

A vote for change is a vote for a stronger, safer, healthier America. A vote for Bush is a vote for a divided, unstable, paranoid America. It is our duty to this beautiful land to let our voices be heard. That's the reason for the tour. That's why I'm doing it.

Because life is short but sweet for certain

I grew up in a very politically aware family. My mother always taught me to question everything, never believing anything simply at face value - especially the nicest, most adamant politicians.

When I don't say a word and you know exactly what I mean...

You crush me with the things you do, I do for anything too...each moment the more I love you.

What I want is what I've not got, but what I need is all around me

The melodies are always the most important part to me. I am pulled more to the groove than the chord progression. After you find the groove, you find the most simple chord progressions and then sit inside that groove.

Probably most of the time I watch children's movies because my kids are on the bus, so it requires them.

But then there are magical, beautiful things in the world. There's incredible acts of kindness and bravery, and in the most unlikely places, and it gives you hope.

I have always been drawn to percussion and drums, to bass and piano, in music much more then I am drawn to the guitar and the other lead instruments.

To change the world, Start with one step. However small, the first step is hardest of all.