Bruce Springsteen Quotes & Sayings

Getting an audience is hard. Sustaining an audience is hard. It demands a consistency of thought, of purpose, and of action over a long period of time. — Bruce Springsteen

You ride in a limousine the first time, it's a big thrill but after that it's just a stupid car. — Bruce Springsteen

Sister, I won't ask for forgiveness, my sins are all I have. — Bruce Springsteen

Tonight I'm stepping lightly and I'm feeling no pain. — Bruce Springsteen

Stay hard, Stay hungry, Stay alive! — Bruce Springsteen

I met a girl and we ran away, I swore I'd make her happy every day. And how I made her cry, two faces have I. — Bruce Springsteen

(talking about his father) 230 pounds of nickels in Sears slacks. — Bruce Springsteen

Here everybody has a neighbor Everybody has a friend Everybody has a reason to begin again. — Bruce Springsteen

When Springsteen meets a future girlfriend on the boardwalk in Asbury Park, he delivers this electric introduction: "She was Italian, funny, a beatific tomboy, with just the hint of a lazy eye, and wore a pair of glasses that made me think of the wonders of the library. — Bruce Springsteen

My teen-beat afternoon clarified everything for me. I had to get back to where I was who I was, a son of New Jersey, gunslinger, bar band king, small-town local hero, big fish in a little pond and breadwinner. Right — Bruce Springsteen

The audiences are there as a result of my history with the band but also as a result of my being able to reach people with a tune. — Bruce Springsteen

Born down in a dead man's town; The first kick I took was when I hit the ground. You end up like a dog that's been beat too much 'Til you spend half your life just covering up. — Bruce Springsteen

Show a little faith, there's magic in the night. — Bruce Springsteen

God have mercy on the man
who doubts what he's sure of. — Bruce Springsteen

You can't start a fire without a spark — Bruce Springsteen

She kissed me just right, like only a lonely angel can. — Bruce Springsteen

They wanted to know why I did what I did. Well, sir I guess there's just meanness in the world. — Bruce Springsteen

The drummer in my first band was killed in Vietnam. He kind of signed up and joined the marines. Bart Hanes was his name. He was one of those guys that was jokin' all the time, always playin' the clown. — Bruce Springsteen

I never start with a political point of view. I believe that your politics are emotionally and psychologically determined by your early experiences. — Bruce Springsteen

When I look at myself, I don't see the man I wanted to be. — Bruce Springsteen

I know I ain't nobody's bargain, but hell a little touchup and a little paint ... — Bruce Springsteen

Well everybody's got a secret, son, something that they just can't face. Some folks spend their whole lives trying to keep it, they carry it with them every step that they take Till some day they just cut it loose, cut it loose or let it drag 'em down Where no one asks any questions or looks too long in your face In the darkness on the edge of town. — Bruce Springsteen

All I try to do is to write music that feels meaningful to me, that has commitment and passion behind it. — Bruce Springsteen

The poets down here don't write nothin' at all, they just stand back and let it all be ... — Bruce Springsteen

I spot a little stranger standing across the room, my brain takes a vacation just to give my heart more room. — Bruce Springsteen

The way I see it, we ate the apple and Adam, Eve, the rebel Jesus in all his glory and Satan are all part of God's plan to make men and women out of us, to give us the precious gifts of earth, dirt, sweat, blood, sex, sin, goodness, freedom, captivity, love, fear, life and death...our humanity and a world of our own. — Bruce Springsteen

I know your mama she don't like me, cause I play in a rock and roll band. — Bruce Springsteen

Evan James was done up in a white suit, looking very handsome and calling "Dada, Dada" during the ceremony — Bruce Springsteen

You have moments of clarity, things become clear to you that you didn't understand before. But there's never any making ends meet or finding any time of longstanding peace of mind about something. — Bruce Springsteen

You use to drive me wild, but lately you get your kicks from just knocking me down, down, down. — Bruce Springsteen

If you listen to the great Beatle records, the earliest ones where the lyrics are incredibly simple. Why are they still beautiful? Well, they're beautifully sung, beautifully played, and the mathematics in them is elegant. They retain their elegance. — Bruce Springsteen

The wise men were all fools, what to do? — Bruce Springsteen

If I have a song that I feel is really one of my best songs, I like it to have a formal studio recording because I believe that something being officially released on a studio record gives it a certain authority that it doesn't quite have if it comes out on a live album or is just a part of your show, you know. — Bruce Springsteen

Two hearts are better than one. — Bruce Springsteen

Baby, this town rips the bones from our back it's a death trap, it's a suicide rap. We got to get out while we're young. — Bruce Springsteen

Don't take yourself too seriously. And take yourself as seriously as death itself. — Bruce Springsteen

Got a wife and kid in Baltimore Jack, I went out for a ride and I never went back. Like a river that don't know where it's flowing, I took a wrong turn and I just kept going. — Bruce Springsteen

In the third grade, a nun stuffed me in a garbage can under her desk because she said that's where I belonged. I also had the distinction of being the only altar boy knocked down by a priest during mass. — Bruce Springsteen

The question of whether we were misled into the war in Iraq isn't a liberal or conservative or Republican or Democratic question, it's an American one. Protecting the democracy that we ask our sons and daughters to die for is our responsibility and our trust. Demanding accountability from our leaders is our job as citizens. It's the American way. So may the truth win out. — Bruce Springsteen

Somebody who can reckon with the past, who can live with the past in the present, and move towards the future - that's fabulous. — Bruce Springsteen

Use it, Rosie, that's what it's there for. — Bruce Springsteen

I believe the war on poverty is a more American idea than the war on the war on poverty. I believe that most people feel like that. And I believe that it ain't over till it's over. — Bruce Springsteen

I want to spit in the face of these badlands. — Bruce Springsteen

In all psychological wars, it's never over,, there's just this day, this time, and a hesitant belief in your ability to change. It is not an arena where the unsure should go looking for absolutes and there are no permanent victories. It is about a living change, filled with the insecurities , the chaos, of our own personalities, and is always one step up, two steps back. — Bruce Springsteen

The star thing I can live with. The music I can't live without. And that's how it lays out for me, you know. I got as big an ego and enjoy the attention. — Bruce Springsteen

First, you write for yourself... always, to make sense of experience and the world around you. It's one of the ways I stay sane. Our stories, our books, our films are how we cope with the random trauma-inducing chaos of life as it plays. — Bruce Springsteen

Mister, I ain't a boy, no I'm a man, and i believe in a promised land. — Bruce Springsteen

Elvis Presley is all there is. There just ain't no more. Everything starts and ends with Elvis. He wrote the book. He is everything to do and not to do in the music business. — Bruce Springsteen

We're here to re-dedicate you to The Power, The Passion, The Mystery, and The Ministry of Rock and Roll. — Bruce Springsteen

But then I go through long periods where I don't listen to things, usually when I'm working. In between the records and in between the writing I suck up books and music and movies and anything I can find. — Bruce Springsteen

Gonna be a twister to blow everything down That ain't got the faith to stand its ground Blow away the dreams that tear you apart Blow away the dreams that break your heart Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted. — Bruce Springsteen

They say "ya gotta stay hungry" ...
Hey Baby ... I'm just about starvin' tonight! — Bruce Springsteen

During the Shadows' five-minute break I was introduced to their front man, Steve Van Zandt. The Castiles by now had a significant reputation, so he knew who I was; we talked a little shop, we hit it off and he went back on for his next set. So began one of the longest and greatest friendships of my life. — Bruce Springsteen

I believe when your children are born that you are reborn in some fashion. — Bruce Springsteen

Well let there be sunlight, let there be rain Let the brokenhearted love again Sherry, we can run with our arms open before the tide. — Bruce Springsteen

It's time to impeach the president and get a man in there to get us out of this mess. — Bruce Springsteen

So let's take the good times as they go and I'll meet you further on up the road ... — Bruce Springsteen

Most of my writing is emotionally autobiographical. You've got to pull up the things that mean something to you in order for them to mean anything to your audience. That's how they know you're not kidding. — Bruce Springsteen

More than rich, more than famous, more than happy ... I wanted to be great. — Bruce Springsteen

There's a beauty in work and I love it, all different kinds of work. That's what I consider it. Rock is my job, and that's my work. And I work my ass off, you know. — Bruce Springsteen

Adult life is dealing with an enormous amount of questions that don't have answers. So I let the mystery settle into my music. I don't deny anything, I don't advocate anything, I just live with it. — Bruce Springsteen

My image had always been very heterosexual, very straight. So it was a nice experience for me, a chance to clarify my own feelings about gay and lesbian civil rights. — Bruce Springsteen

The highway is alive tonight But nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light With the ghost of old Tom Joad. — Bruce Springsteen

I grew up with a very big extended family, with a lot of aunts. We had about five or six houses on one street. — Bruce Springsteen

Yeah, I had gay friends. The first thing I realized was that everybody's different, and it becomes obvious that all of the gay stereotypes are ridiculous. — Bruce Springsteen

I played in front of every conceivable audience you could face: an all-black audience, all-white, firemen's fairs, policemen's balls, in front of supermarkets, bar mitzvahs, weddings, drive-in theaters. I'd seen it all before I ever walked into a recording studio. — Bruce Springsteen

Now everyone dreams of a love faithful and true,
But you and I know what this world can do.
So let's make our steps clear so the other may see.
And I'll wait for you ... should I fall behind wait for me. — Bruce Springsteen

We could survive as musicians only on our little sliver of the East Coast. We had to get back. — Bruce Springsteen

If they could keep out of jail for this short stretch, most would go on to be the spine of American society - fixing the cars, working the factories, growing the food and fighting the wars. — Bruce Springsteen

I was signed to a record label at the same time as my friend Elliot Murphy, who makes great records to this day. — Bruce Springsteen

There is a real patriotism underneath the best of my music but it is a critical, questioning and often angry patriotism. — Bruce Springsteen

You hung with me when all the others turned away, turned up their noses We liked the same music, we liked the same bands, we liked the same clothes Yeah we told each other that we were the wildest, the wildest things we'd ever seen Now I wish you would have told me, I wish I could have talked to you Just to say goodbye, Bobby Jean. — Bruce Springsteen

From the town of Lincoln Nebraska with a sawed off .410 on my lap, through the Badlands of Wyoming I killed everything in my path. — Bruce Springsteen

Now young faces grow sad and old and hearts of fire grow cold
We swore blood brothers against the wind
I'm ready to grow young again — Bruce Springsteen

Some guys they just give up living, and start dying little by little, piece by piece. — Bruce Springsteen

To her Cheshire smile, I'll stand on file, she's all I ever wanted. But you let your blue walls get in the way of these facts. — Bruce Springsteen

For me, I was somebody who was a smart young guy who didn't do very well in school. The basic system of education, I didn't fit in; my intelligence was elsewhere. — Bruce Springsteen

You're born into this life paying for the sins of somebody else's past. — Bruce Springsteen

My dad had a very difficult life, a hard struggle all the time at work. I've always felt like I'm seeking his revenge. — Bruce Springsteen

Wendy, let me in, I wanna be your friend. I wanna guard your dreams and visions. — Bruce Springsteen

The man on the radio says Elvis Presley's died. We drove to Memphis, the sky was hard and black. — Bruce Springsteen

It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive. — Bruce Springsteen

I have spent my life judging the distance between American reality and the American dream. — Bruce Springsteen

The only thing I can say about having this type of success is that you can get yourself in trouble because basically the world is set open for you. People will say yes to anything you ask, so it's basically down to you and what you want or need. — Bruce Springsteen

All you can do is show people ... You tell stories that are true and compelling. — Bruce Springsteen

There's an opera out on the turnpike, there's a ballet being fought out in the alley. — Bruce Springsteen

You've got to be able to hold a lot of contradictory ideas in your mind without going nuts. I feel like to do my job right, when I walk out on stage I've got to feel like it's the most important thing in the world. Also I've got to feel like, well, it's only rock and roll. Somehow you've got to believe both of those things. — Bruce Springsteen

When I was very, very young, I decided that I was gonna catalogue my times because that's what other people who I admired did. That's what Bob Dylan did, that's what Frank Sinatra did, Hank Williams did, in very different ways. — Bruce Springsteen

The beat of her heart, the slow burning away ... of the bitter fires of the devil's arcade. — Bruce Springsteen

Let there be sunshine, let there be rain, let the broken hearted love again. — Bruce Springsteen

I hadn't performed by myself in a while. It feels very natural to me, and I assume people come for the very same reasons as they do when I'm with the band: to be moved, for something to happen to them. — Bruce Springsteen

I have to write and play. If I became an electrician tomorrow, I'd still come home at night and write songs. — Bruce Springsteen

I was looking for some way to put my music to some service on a nightly basis. You go into a town, you play a little music, you leave something behind. That idea connected us to the local community. It was a very simple idea, but it really resonated with me. — Bruce Springsteen

At night I wake up with my sheets soaking wet and a freight train running through the middle of my head. — Bruce Springsteen

strenght-faith-hope-love — Bruce Springsteen

It's a town full of losers
And I'm pulling out of here to win. — Bruce Springsteen

If they had told me I was the janitor and would have to mop up and clean the toilets after the show in order to play, I probably would have done it. — Bruce Springsteen

Your skin upon my skin, in the beating of our hearts, may the living let us in, before the dead tear us apart. — Bruce Springsteen

It was time to call on my old paisan Steve Van Zandt. — Bruce Springsteen

The marriage-equality issue should be recognized for what it truly is - a civil rights issue that must be approved to assure that every citizen is treated equally under the law. — Bruce Springsteen