Carlos Santana Quotes & Sayings

Your mind is a magnet. You don't attract what you need or what you want; you attract who you are. And I love who I am! — Carlos Santana

A lot of people said to me, 'Enough with the guest vocalists for a while. We want to hear the Mexican play the guitar!' — Carlos Santana

Some songs are just like tattoos for your brain ... you hear them and they're affixed to you. — Carlos Santana

People get stuck in their stories. My advice is to end your story and begin your life. — Carlos Santana

People are flowers. Music is water. Musicians are the hose. — Carlos Santana

The best part of touring, still, is touching people's hearts and igniting my band and igniting the people into what you call a spiritual revelation is sound and emotion. — Carlos Santana

First of all, the music that people call Latin or Spanish is really African. So Black people need to get the credit for that. — Carlos Santana

Your wrinkles either show that you're nasty, cranky, and senile, or that you're always smiling. — Carlos Santana

Most people are prisoners, thinking only about the future or living in the past. They are not in the present, and the present is where everything begins. — Carlos Santana

If you want to be successful, just meditate, man. God will tell you what people need. — Carlos Santana

Most people don't have that willingness to break bad habits. They have a lot of excuses and they talk like victims. — Carlos Santana

My job in this life is to give people spiritual ecstasy through music. In my concerts people cry, laugh, dance. If they climaxed spiritually, I did my job. I did it decently and honestly. — Carlos Santana

There is nothing more contagious on this planet than enthusiasm. — Carlos Santana

The guitar is your first wings. It's assigned and designed to unfold your vision and imagination. — Carlos Santana

If you carry joy in your heart, you can heal any moment. — Carlos Santana

The concept is to weave in some emotion, — Carlos Santana

The music of Hendrix wakes people up to their possibilities. It's more than just dreaming about being a guitar hero. — Carlos Santana

When my father passed away two or three years ago, I didnt listen to music for four days - thats a long time for me. — Carlos Santana

I am becoming the people I love. — Carlos Santana

The people of Arizona, the people of Atlanta, Georgia, you should be ashamed of yourselves. — Carlos Santana

Blues was my first love. It was the first thing where I said, 'Oh man, this is the stuff.' It just sounded so raw and honest, gut-bucket honest. From then I started rebelling. — Carlos Santana

Whether you are doing it in the bar, the church, the strip joint, or the Himalayas, the first duty of music is to complement and enhance life. — Carlos Santana

One day there will be no borders, no boundaries, no flags and no countries and the only passport will be the heart — Carlos Santana

We are capable of creating miracles ourselves and the greatest miracle is to create a masterpiece of joy out of your life with no excuses. The thing I focus on is going straight to heart. I go to mine first because if I don't feel it, you're not going to feel it. I take a deep breath and remind myself that before I give it to you I have to give it to myself. — Carlos Santana

I invite you, wholeheartedly, to read books that remind you of your highest self and emancipate you from mental slavery or false beliefs and illusions. The more you invest in attracting books that resonate with the frequency of your true self, the more light you will bring to the world. — Carlos Santana

There is divinity in your DNA. Live your light. — Carlos Santana

The energy of devils and angels is the same energy; it's how you use it. It's fuel. There is a saying: If you scare all your devils away, the angels will go away with them. You know, the halo and the horns are the same thing. I mean it's OK to be spiritually horny - that's what creative genius is all about. Geniuses don't have time to think about how it's going to be received ... they don't have time to think whether people like it or not, is it morally right, will God like it? — Carlos Santana

You are not realistic unless you believe in miracles! — Carlos Santana

Bring the brothers home, and sisters home now. Legalize marijuana and take all that money and invest it in teachers and in education. You will see a transformation in America. — Carlos Santana

I have wisdom. I feel love. I live in the present and I try to present a dimension that brings harmony and healing. — Carlos Santana

There is no person that love cannot heal; there is no soul that love cannot save. — Carlos Santana

I have come to the conclusion - and I don't know why it took me so long, but nevertheless, I'm here now - that a lot of people tell me they don't get enough guitar on my albums. So I decided to do an album where the guitar would be the singer, playing the melody. — Carlos Santana

What is an ego except something that thinks it's separate from God? — Carlos Santana

KISS is Las Vegas entertainment. A musician doesn't need the mask. — Carlos Santana

The Devil is like a strainer that separates the mud from the gold. — Carlos Santana

You cannot behave appropriately, unless you perceive correctly. Once you perceive you are a beam of Light, that comes from the mind of God, you will carry yourself differently. — Carlos Santana

My reality is that God speaks to you every day. There's an inner voice, and when you hear it, you get a little tingle in your medulla oblongata at the back of your neck, a little shiver, and at two o'clock in the morning, everything's really quiet and you meditate and you got the candles, you got the incense and you've been chanting, and all of a sudden you hear this voice: Write this down. It is just an inner voice, and you trust it. That voice will never take you to the desert. — Carlos Santana

You're always cursing, you're always praying and you're always making love. It ain't do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do. — Carlos Santana

There is no greater reward than working from your heart and making a difference in the world. — Carlos Santana

If our history can challenge the next wave of musicians to keep moving and changing, to keep spiritually hungry and horny, that's what it's all about. — Carlos Santana

Every day you wake up is an opportunity to go beyond, and that 's why I let my band go right now. For the first time in my life I'm just roaming around, vagabonding. — Carlos Santana

When a baby comes you can smell two things: the smell of flesh, which smells like chicken soup, and the smell of lilies, the flower of another garden, the spiritual garden. — Carlos Santana

There's never one sunrise the same or one sunset the same. — Carlos Santana

There is more value in placing a flower in a rifle barrel than making war. As Jimi Hendrix used to say, musical notes have more importance than bullets. — Carlos Santana

When you play from the heart,
all of a sudden there's no gravity.
You don't feel the weight of the world,
of bills, of anything.
That's why people love it.
Your so-called insurmountable problems disappear,
and instead of problems you get possibilities. — Carlos Santana

I realised a long time ago that instrumental music speaks a lot more clearly than English, Spanish, Yiddish, Swahili, any other language. Pure melody goes outside time. — Carlos Santana

Stay in your heart. — Carlos Santana

He just seems as cool as ever. I can smell him. Even on the other side, there is smell. Like, when babies are born, there's two smells-one is chicken soup, which is the flesh, and the other is lilacs, which is coming from the spiritual garden. The spirit has a lilac smell. — Carlos Santana

If You're going to sweep the floor, sweep it better than anybody in town. And if You're going to play the guitar, really, really, really get in it, and don't be jivin'. — Carlos Santana

Some musicians, man, you hear the note almost before they hit it. Jimi, Coltrane and Charlie Parker were like that ... — Carlos Santana

It takes strength, man, to know when to let go of your kids, really, really let them go and trust them with the one who made them in the first place. — Carlos Santana

And as for what I've learned: be an instrument of peace. Be a gentleman at all costs. Enjoy yourself - have fun with your existence. Learn to listen to your inner voice and don't overdose on yourself. Keep your darkness in check. Let music be a healing force. Be a real musician: once you start counting money before notes, you're a full-time wannabe. Put your guitar down and go outside and take a long drink of light with your eyes. Go walk in the park and take off your shoes and socks and feel the grass under your feet and mud between your toes. Go see a baby smiling, go see a wino crawling, go see life. Feel life - all of it, as much as possible. Find a human melody, then write a song about it. Make it all come through your music. — Carlos Santana

Everything is a battlefield. If you fight with anger, you are part of the problem. If you fight with joy, you're part of the solution. — Carlos Santana

Ever since I was a child I've always been very attracted to melodies. Whether I hear Jeff Beck, a choir, an ocean or the wind, there's always a melody in there. — Carlos Santana

You've got to change your evil ways, baby, before I start loving you. — Carlos Santana

Live up to your convictions. You walk in grace or you walk in fear. You can't have it both ways. — Carlos Santana

Angels cry because they want to experience what you and I feel: the moment. They live in eternity. They dont know what it is like to read a newspaper and get ink on your fingers. They dont know what it is like to take your shoes off and wiggle your toes under the dinner table. — Carlos Santana

When you are in your heart of hearts, you can see beyond appearances. — Carlos Santana

I can show you that I have played with just about every jazz musician, every African musician, every blues musician. It's not like I'm cashing in on a false concept. This is what I do. — Carlos Santana

I grew up in the sixties watching B.B. King and Tito Puente and Miles Davis and Coltrane, everybody, Marvin Gaye, Jimi. And at the same time, with my left eye I was watching Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Mother Teresa. — Carlos Santana

I'm ready to do something with Lady Gaga or Andrea Bocelli. I'm really grateful that nothing is out of the realm of possibility. — Carlos Santana

I think of music as a menu. I can't eat the same thing every day. — Carlos Santana

No one's better than me. I'm not better than anyone. Whether it's Eric Clapton or BB King we look straight at each other. And that keeps it real. — Carlos Santana

Everybody sooner or later has to drop the luggage and the baggage of illusions. — Carlos Santana

when you go through hell - your own darkest night of the soul - don't take pictures to show to your friends. — Carlos Santana

The worst thing you can become in life is cynical. Cynical is like concrete. and nothing grows in concrete. — Carlos Santana

If you stay in your heart you will always be inspired and if you are inspired you will always be enthusiastic. There is nothing more contagious on this planet as enthusiasm. — Carlos Santana

I would invite all Latin people to do nothing for about two weeks so you can see who really, really is running the economy I am here to give voice to the invisible. — Carlos Santana

All music is important if it comes from the heart. — Carlos Santana

You meditate and you got the candles, you got the incense and you've been chanting, and all of a sudden you hear this voice: 'Write this down' — Carlos Santana

I knuckle down with my demons, and with my weaknesses. — Carlos Santana

Just as we have two eyes and two feet, duality is part of life. — Carlos Santana

Music rearranges your molecular structure. — Carlos Santana

I'm laughing because I know the secret of life. And the secret of life is that I have validated my existence. I know that I am worth more than my house, my bank account, or any physical thing. — Carlos Santana

I know I'm not the kind of person who's gonna wind up a walking jukebox, like many rock 'n' roll artists. They just play their hits and that's it. That doesn't appeal to me. — Carlos Santana

The more choices we give patients affected by depression, the better we will serve them. — Carlos Santana

Surrender your whole being to a note, and gravity disappears ... wi th one chord — Carlos Santana

There's a melody in everything. And once you find the melody, then you connect immediately with the heart. Because sometimes English or Spanish, Swahili or any language gets in the way. But nothing penetrates the heart faster than the melody. — Carlos Santana

When you fly to New York, sometimes they put you on hold and you just go round and around in a holding pattern. Sometimes in a concert, I feel other spirits in a holding pattern that they want to land through my heart and through my fingers. — Carlos Santana

I have been accused of being a very simplistic, very lyrical player, and that's okay. That just comes from the blues, which is my background. But every day you wake up and transcend. You can't ever rest on your laurels. — Carlos Santana

Happiness is not a destination or an experience. It's a decision. — Carlos Santana

In 1983, after my son, Salvador, was born, I visited Cihuatlan, my dad's hometown in Mexico with my dad. I met a lady there who told me, "Carlos, I grew up with Don Jose'. (dad) We were from the same generation. I want you to know that you might be recognized around the world, but here Don Jose' is the Santana that counts." My dad just looked at me. I smiled and said, "Hey that's fine with me. — Carlos Santana

John Coltrane is still probably one of the greatest musicians of this century. His tone truly puts demons on a leash. His gift is directly from the mind of God and is very powerful ... The first time I heard a Love Supreme, it was really an assault. It could've been from mars as far as i was concerned, or another galaxy.
I remember the album cover and the name, but the music didn't fit into the patterns of my brain at that point. It was like someone trying to tell a monkey about spirituality or computers, you know, it just didn't compute. — Carlos Santana

Peace has never come from dropping bombs. Real peace comes from enlightenment and educating people to behave more in a divine manner. — Carlos Santana

You can take things that Jimi Hendrix took, from Curtis Mayfield or from Buddy Guy for example, because we are all children of everything, even Picasso. But if you want to stand out, you have to learn to crystallize your existence and create your own fingerprints. — Carlos Santana

I realized that it's all really one, that John Lennon was correct. We utilize the music to bring down the walls of Berlin, to bring up the force of compassion and forgiveness and kindness between Palestines, Hebrews. Bring down the walls here in San Diego, Tijuana, Cuba. — Carlos Santana

My dad's a beautiful man, but like a lot of Mexican men, or men in general, a lot of men have a problem with the balance of masculinity and femininity - intuition and compassion and tenderness - and get overboard with the macho thing. It took him a while to become more, I would say, conscious, evolved. — Carlos Santana

I don't eat meat because meat brings out negative qualities such as fear, anger, anxiety, aggressiveness, etc. Vegetables peacefully offer themselves to the earth when ripe, thus allowing a sublime and peaceful thought-conscio usness — Carlos Santana