Steven Van Zandt Quotes

Little Richard opens his mouth, and out comes liberation.

Politics, in general, when you’re trying to change the world for the better in any kind of way, no matter how small or how big, it’s inches.

Rock n’ roll as a genre is different from pop and hip hop: it is about bands, and that for me suggests brotherhood, family, friendship and community.

The simple fact is we do not live in a democracy. Certainly not the kind our Founding Fathers intended. We live in a corporate dictatorship represented by, and beholden to, no single human being you can reason with or hold responsible for anything.

First of all, just because the Tea Party people appear to be generally uneducated, ignorant about the political process, ignorant about economics, confused about their own platform from the beginning, and indelicate when it comes to the craft of diplomacy, doesn’t mean they’re wrong.

I’ve always been very thematic with my work, very conceptual.

You can trace the E Street Band directly back to the Rascals.

I was very lucky with ‘The Sopranos.’

Where do I begin with ‘The Godfather?’ It’s like explaining why the ‘Bible’ is so popular. I’ll always remember seeing the first one because it was the only time I went to the movies with my grandfather.

There is an established tradition of actors directing films that have a particular, personal meaning for them – Warren Beatty, Clint Eastwood, Kevin Costner, and most recently George Clooney to name a few. Remarkably, their films share an unusually high percentage of being very good.

Part of the job of being a producer is the Vulcan mind meld, where you listen not to what they’re saying but what they mean.

Like most people, I’ve always felt using words like ‘best’ when applied to art is a fun way for critics to stay busy at the end of the year, and I guess a good way to help get ratings for awards shows, which is fine.

My father was an ex-Marine Goldwater Republican.

I am interested in the interaction of a group of people who have a common goal, or a common obsession, each contributing something unique to make something greater than the sum of its parts. I don’t know why, but from day one, that has interested me.

They legislate fatherhood in Norway. It’s not an option. That’s a shocking thing to us in America.

In my mind, it’s always easier to do a sequel than an original.

The Rascals are something else. They’re up there with the Beatles, and Stones and Byrds. That level of musicality. They have a real chemistry. It is like magic.

I’ll never understand why people somehow support pollution. It’s completely irrational, and I don’t get it. Somewhere along the line, they bought into this fiction that one has to choose between the environment and business, which is just a complete falsehood and absurd.

I am Italian. Springsteen’s mostly Italian, too. We’re both Italians with Dutch names, one of the many things we have in common.

I don’t wake up every day and just write to write. I only write with purpose.

Whatever I’m doing, I try and keep the quality very high.

Every successful person needs to have at least one person in their life who’s not afraid of them.

The first rule of rock and roll is it’s all about live. Then you have to learn a second craft, which is making records. It should go in that order.

Band members have a special bond. A great band is more than just some people working together. It’s like a highly specialized army unit, or a winning sports team. A unique combination of elements that becomes stronger together than apart.

It’s so liberating to play a song in front of 50,000 people that you’ve never played before. Not something you played a long time ago and have forgotten: Never. Played. Before. There’s something magical about it.

The rock era, as I clock it, went from ’65 to ’94, from ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ to Kurt Cobain’s death.

My lifelong friend and mentor Frank Barsalona is gone. And the music business as we knew it went with him.

Once Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings are not cool on country radio, it’s time for a new format.

I need a big picture. I can’t just do a collection of songs; that doesn’t work for me.

Little Steven – the songwriter, producer, and arranger – stayed alive doing the ‘Lilyhammer’ score. That pretty much took up three or four years of my life, and all of my musical energy went into that.

I had the wonderful good luck of having Jimmy Gandolfini as my mentor and David Chase as my godfather, two of the most talented guys in the history of television.

Let’s not pretend we have too much of a democracy here, because we don’t.

I’m always surprised when a sequel is not as good or better than the first one. I never understand that. You’ve already set your own bar. You’ve already done the hard work. It should be easier to make the second one, but a lot of the times, it’s not.

The only reason why I made solo records was because I got so obsessed with politics, and that is quite personal. I don’t really philosophically believe in solo records.

C-17s should be ready to go at various military bases around the world packed with water, food, medical supplies, sleeping bags and tents, all prepared to be air dropped in alongside soldiers and doctors to begin relief efforts.

I’m a real band guy, you know? I’m really good at certain things, and the band stuff is one of them.

I tried to get Primal Scream to come over to America several times.

I have very little interest in the modern world, and I’m not in any way conflicted about that.

‘Sopranos’ was a fascinating moment, just catching our whole culture by surprise, a fun ride to be on while I’m learning the craft.

I was obsessed with politics in the ’80s. I’ve recovered and I’m feeling much better now, thank you.

There are… certainly more innovations on ‘Revolver’… but the truth of the matter is ‘Sgt. Pepper’ has something that was just completely different and unique at that moment.

Your celebrity capital rises and falls in any given year. And when you have some – temporarily, usually – you try to use it for some good.

Garage rock is music for older people with young souls and young people with old souls. It’s a certain sensibility, and you may have it when you’re 17 or when you’re 67.

I tend to personally judge issue by issue rather than sort of endorsing this football-team mentality that we fall into in this country, where it’s all about the team.

I tell everybody, if you’ve got a band that works, it’s a miracle. It’s never going to be perfect, but if it works on some level, hold on to it with both hands and don’t ever let it go.

I believe that hundreds of years from now, history will be divided into pre-1960s and post-1960s.

What the world needs is an Emergency Boss. An Emergency Czar. An Emergency Commander. A true Master Of Disaster. One person completely responsible for the anticipation, immediate reconnaissance, and urgent execution of rescue and relief efforts around the world.

I was 100 percent political in the ’80s – the first time around, let’s call it, my first life as an artist.

I was deep into it – worldwide liberation politics as well as domestic – but by the end of the ’80s, I had decided it all comes down to one single issue: campaign-finance elimination.

To walk into a studio, for me, is just like walking onto a beach or something.

Being a rock n’ roll star ain’t a part-time gig.

For those who are familiar with my work, ‘Soulfire’ is a return to how most people identify me, which is that soul-meets-rock thing.

I’ve always had a reluctance to meet my heroes.

Believe me, if Donald Trump didn’t have some point that he’s making, hitting home with people, he could not have come this far – as much as a showman as he may be.

I just love that whole Brill Building era. I will always regret not being there. That’s where I belong.

Before Dylan, before rock became art, it was a wonderful fusion of pop structure and personal statements.

For me, making a record is a vacation. I’d like to do it more often. Just, chances are impossible… It’s a very expensive hobby, you know?

‘Born to Run’ was a mixture of things but mostly about youth and fantasies.

You ask people to fall in love with you. To need you. To want you. To buy your records and come see you. You have an emotional contract with people. To break up is to violate that contract.

Life should never be boring.

You’re either on the Republican team or the Democratic team, and all that matters is that your team wins. Judging by history, regardless of which team wins, the people always lose.

Stevie Van Zandt could not walk on to a set and act. I don’t know how actors do that! It’s the scariest thing in the world.

As an actor just learning the craft, you literally do a scene with Jimmy Gandolfini, and you walk away a better actor.

I learned everything I know from leaving the E Street Band. And of course, one of the things I learned is, I never should have left.

I was a gambler when I was a kid, so when we got to Las Vegas, it was like Mecca.

For me, it all comes down to one issue: if we can get money out of political systems, the whole world will change.

As most of the population suffers through life, barely surviving, disappointed and confused day after day, hopeless, wondering what happened to their strong and beautiful country, it is in the media’s power to restore, if not some of our quality of life, at least a bit of our peace of mind.

I didn’t care about anything expect rock & roll. So it’s nice that it turned out to be something that you find a way to make a living from.

I know what it takes to make a band, how they should interact, what makes a record sound like it’s a band – everything having to do with a band, I happen to be into.

I did nothing but international liberation politics for ten years, and usually it was like, you gain an inch, you lose a half an inch. It’s slow going, man.

In ‘The Sopranos,’ these guys know their best years are behind them. They have nostalgia for their old traditions. In their minds, they’re looking for a time when loyalty mattered, community mattered. E Street is about community, too. People are looking for something real.

The British invasion was the most important event of my life. I was in New Jersey and the night I saw the Beatles changed everything. I had seen Elvis before and he had done nothing for me, but these guys were in a band.

I did 10 years on ‘Sopranos,’ but the whole craft of acting is relatively new to me. I’m still learning that, and I’ll be learning that forever.

I’ve always considered the government taking one out of every two dollars I earn absolute tyranny.

Bands should never break up.