Steven Van Zandt Quotes

Here, we’ve compiled a list of the best Steven Van Zandt Quotes. Let’s look at these pieces of wisdom. We definitely have something to learn from them!

1
Little Richard opens his mouth, and out comes liberation.
Steven Van Zandt
2
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.
Steven Van Zandt
3
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.
Steven Van Zandt
4
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.
Steven Van Zandt
5
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.
Steven Van Zandt
6
I’ve always been very thematic with my work, very conceptual.
Steven Van Zandt
7
You can trace the E Street Band directly back to the Rascals.
Steven Van Zandt
8
I was very lucky with ‘The Sopranos.’
Steven Van Zandt
9
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.
Steven Van Zandt
10
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.
Steven Van Zandt
11
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.
Steven Van Zandt
12
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.
Steven Van Zandt
13
My father was an ex-Marine Goldwater Republican.
Steven Van Zandt
14
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.
Steven Van Zandt
15
They legislate fatherhood in Norway. It’s not an option. That’s a shocking thing to us in America.
Steven Van Zandt
16
In my mind, it’s always easier to do a sequel than an original.
Steven Van Zandt
17
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.
Steven Van Zandt
18
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.
Steven Van Zandt
19
I am Italian. Springsteen’s mostly Italian, too. We’re both Italians with Dutch names, one of the many things we have in common.
Steven Van Zandt
20
I don’t wake up every day and just write to write. I only write with purpose.
Steven Van Zandt
21
Whatever I’m doing, I try and keep the quality very high.
Steven Van Zandt
22
Every successful person needs to have at least one person in their life who’s not afraid of them.
Steven Van Zandt
23
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.
Steven Van Zandt
24
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.
Steven Van Zandt
25
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.
Steven Van Zandt
26
The rock era, as I clock it, went from ’65 to ’94, from ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ to Kurt Cobain’s death.
Steven Van Zandt
27
My lifelong friend and mentor Frank Barsalona is gone. And the music business as we knew it went with him.
Steven Van Zandt
28
Once Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings are not cool on country radio, it’s time for a new format.
Steven Van Zandt
29
I need a big picture. I can’t just do a collection of songs; that doesn’t work for me.
Steven Van Zandt
30
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.
Steven Van Zandt
31
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.
Steven Van Zandt
32
Let’s not pretend we have too much of a democracy here, because we don’t.
Steven Van Zandt
33
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.
Steven Van Zandt
34
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.
Steven Van Zandt
35
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.
Steven Van Zandt
36
I’m a real band guy, you know? I’m really good at certain things, and the band stuff is one of them.
Steven Van Zandt
37
I tried to get Primal Scream to come over to America several times.
Steven Van Zandt
38
I have very little interest in the modern world, and I’m not in any way conflicted about that.
Steven Van Zandt
39
‘Sopranos’ was a fascinating moment, just catching our whole culture by surprise, a fun ride to be on while I’m learning the craft.
Steven Van Zandt
40
I was obsessed with politics in the ’80s. I’ve recovered and I’m feeling much better now, thank you.
Steven Van Zandt
41
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.
Steven Van Zandt
42
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.
Steven Van Zandt
43
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.
Steven Van Zandt
44
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.
Steven Van Zandt
45
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.
Steven Van Zandt
46
I believe that hundreds of years from now, history will be divided into pre-1960s and post-1960s.
Steven Van Zandt
47
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.
Steven Van Zandt
48
I was 100 percent political in the ’80s – the first time around, let’s call it, my first life as an artist.
Steven Van Zandt
49
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.
Steven Van Zandt
50
To walk into a studio, for me, is just like walking onto a beach or something.
Steven Van Zandt
51
Being a rock n’ roll star ain’t a part-time gig.
Steven Van Zandt
52
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.
Steven Van Zandt
53
I’ve always had a reluctance to meet my heroes.
Steven Van Zandt
54
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.
Steven Van Zandt
55
I just love that whole Brill Building era. I will always regret not being there. That’s where I belong.
Steven Van Zandt
56
Before Dylan, before rock became art, it was a wonderful fusion of pop structure and personal statements.
Steven Van Zandt
57
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?
Steven Van Zandt
58
‘Born to Run’ was a mixture of things but mostly about youth and fantasies.
Steven Van Zandt
59
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.
Steven Van Zandt
60
Life should never be boring.
Steven Van Zandt
61
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.
Steven Van Zandt
62
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.
Steven Van Zandt
63
As an actor just learning the craft, you literally do a scene with Jimmy Gandolfini, and you walk away a better actor.
Steven Van Zandt
64
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.
Steven Van Zandt
65
I was a gambler when I was a kid, so when we got to Las Vegas, it was like Mecca.
Steven Van Zandt
66
For me, it all comes down to one issue: if we can get money out of political systems, the whole world will change.
Steven Van Zandt
67
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.
Steven Van Zandt
68
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.
Steven Van Zandt
69
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.
Steven Van Zandt
70
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.
Steven Van Zandt
71
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.
Steven Van Zandt
72
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.
Steven Van Zandt
73
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.
Steven Van Zandt
74
I’ve always considered the government taking one out of every two dollars I earn absolute tyranny.
Steven Van Zandt
75
Bands should never break up.
Steven Van Zandt