Neil Diamond Quotes & Sayings

My music is in young people's lives because it's so much a part of their parents' lives. — Neil Diamond

I have a lot of confidence, but little Self-Esteem. This has given me a tremendous creative spark because it forced me to keep proving myself. — Neil Diamond

Whatever success I've had so far has been assimilated into my body and mind. — Neil Diamond

It was a real hand-to-mouth existence in those early days - I'd have whatever dry cereal there was in the house for breakfast, 30 cents to spend on lunch and a hot dog for dinner. I did that for years. So there was definitely a hunger in me, of various kinds, to succeed. — Neil Diamond

I thought love was more or less a giving thing. Seems the more I gave, the less I got. — Neil Diamond

Over the years, you grow up, you mature and you see things in a different way, and it's reflected in the writing. — Neil Diamond

I suppose that being moved to write a song is more applicable to me, I have to be moved, I have to have a reason to write a particular song. — Neil Diamond

Well, I Am ... I Said was a very difficult song, very difficult because I really had to spend a lot of time thinking about what I was before the song was written. — Neil Diamond

Song Sung Blue took a lot of compressing and refining, and it has one of my favorite lyrics. — Neil Diamond

I used to go to my kids' soccer games and I was the only parent who wasn't screaming, because I'd have to do a show that night. It was hard. Moms and dads get more emotional at those soccer and Little League games than at a professional game. — Neil Diamond

I definitely don't feel like I'm 71. I feel like I did when I was - between 30 and 40. The body ages. The mind doesn't. — Neil Diamond

I communicate with fans on Twitter. I enjoy the ability to impulsively write something and ship it out to the fans and fellow tweeters out there. — Neil Diamond

Songwritng is what I do. — Neil Diamond

Very often the music comes first. — Neil Diamond

When I need my wife or when I need companionship or someone to talk to, I need it, like, now. So my wife will have to give up whatever she's doing at that moment to tend to my needs. And, in the same way, I would tend to hers. That's not such an easy thing to do. — Neil Diamond

The man in between waits between the two, not hearing the lie and not seeing the true. Unknowing what is and denying what seems, and there he will sleep, the man in between. — Neil Diamond

I'm throwing myself back in because I like being married. I don't want to end this whole fabulous journey alone. I want someone by my side who I love and who loves me. I've finally found somebody who's up to the task of being my wife, because I'm very high maintenance. — Neil Diamond

She got the way to move me, Cherry, she got the way to groove me. — Neil Diamond

I am, I cried. I am, I said. And I am lost. — Neil Diamond

Songs are life in 80 words or less. — Neil Diamond

You like to think that it's something you created, but secretly you know that you had some kind of help, or somebody gave this to you. — Neil Diamond

If it can affect me, if it has meaning to me, if I feel I can do it well, I will do it and record it and thats why I recorded these songs. — Neil Diamond

Songwriting is different from music, although I don't deny now that it would be nice to have a little more background in music theory. — Neil Diamond

I was always interested in science, and pre-med was arespectable thing to do while I ursued my songwriting. — Neil Diamond

I think probably Australians have just a little more taste than most people. — Neil Diamond

Maybe tonight, maybe tonight by the fire all alone you and I. Nothing around but the sound of heart and your sighs. — Neil Diamond

I thank the Lord for the night time. — Neil Diamond

I think that if I have one hope, 1 ambition, 1 aspiration for the next 4 or 5 years it would be that I can improve as a writer and just be able to say more of what I want to say throught the music. — Neil Diamond

I'm not really comfortable in any one spot. — Neil Diamond

I Am ... I Said is a very complicated song and its complicated probably because my feelings were very complicated when I wrote it. — Neil Diamond

I am," I said
To no one there
An no one heard at all
Not even the chair
"I am," I cried
"I am," said I
And I am lost, and I can't even say why
Leavin' me lonely still — Neil Diamond

Be ... As a page that aches for a word
Which speaks on a theme that is timeless — Neil Diamond

Because my musical training has been limited, I've never been restricted by what technical musicians might call a song. — Neil Diamond

I still need practice in enjoying the fruits of success. — Neil Diamond

As I said before, stones to me is meant things that hurt people, things that cause pain and thats what this song is about. — Neil Diamond

Songs are so all-encompassing; they're the joys and sorrows and pacing of life. — Neil Diamond

Touch a man who can't walk up right, and that lame man, he's gonna fly. — Neil Diamond

You have to go out there and give a piece of yourself
your life, your soul. And you better give the audience everything you can
physically, emotionally, musically. Then maybe they'll accept you and give you a standing ovation at the end. — Neil Diamond

When I first started, I worked with three chords in every bar, but I found that tied me down - I'm not a chord-change writer, I'm a songwriter. — Neil Diamond

Free, only want to be free, we huddle close, hang on to a dream ... — Neil Diamond

He aint heavy, he's my brother. — Neil Diamond

You can't plan to write a great song. It just happens to you. It drops in your lap. It's the same thing with a woman. — Neil Diamond

Each acoustic guitar has its own character and personality. On a particular day, I might pick one up and start noodling around, looking for some emotional content in the chords. — Neil Diamond

I couldn't resist. I went over and joined in, and we just sang the song together, ... They had no idea that I had written it, or who I was. I was just some weird guy who wanted to join in on the singing. — Neil Diamond

It's much harder to play myself. If I ever do a movie again, it'll be a singing serial killer. — Neil Diamond

I'm lucky. Hard work is the key, but luck plays a part. — Neil Diamond

Performing is the easiest part of what I do, and songwriting is the hardest. — Neil Diamond

I don't like all of the music to be serious and deadly. — Neil Diamond

Love never doubts or suffers or cries. Love shows no fear, love tells no lies. — Neil Diamond

It's very difficult for me to say 'I love you' but to sing 'I love you' for me is easier. — Neil Diamond

The cardinal rule for any performer is that they should know themselves before they enter the spotlight, and I didn't. I was just Neil and I did what I was supposed to do. I was supposed to get married, so I got married. I was supposed to get a job, so I looked for work. — Neil Diamond

As a songwriter there's nothing more exciting than the unknown, the new and different. — Neil Diamond

But you make me sing like a guitar humming ... — Neil Diamond

Don't need to say please to no man for a happy tune. — Neil Diamond

I've found for the last couple of years that the things that I can become most deeply involved with are songs that reflect my real feelings about things and so that what I've been writing about. — Neil Diamond

Home's the most excellent place of all. — Neil Diamond

The truth always stays the same. — Neil Diamond

Acting is a specific discipline. Just because you can sing doesn't mean you have the sensitivities of being an actor. — Neil Diamond

I didn't want to repeat my mistakes so I stopped, took some time out and started having therapy. My songs were bringing up feelings inside of me I didn't really understand, so I wanted to understand where they were coming from to help me be a better person and a better songwriter. — Neil Diamond

When love is unkind, it is not love anymore. — Neil Diamond

Nothing is sadder than love left unheard. — Neil Diamond

Crackling Rosie make me smile. God, if it lasts for an hour that's alright, to set the world right. Find us a dream that don't ask no questions. — Neil Diamond

My peers accept me and respect me, and that's enough. — Neil Diamond

I may have a little bit of a talent for music, but I've learnt to tap into my own self when I write. When I put the drill bit inside my heart, sometimes I come up with something light and frothy, sometimes with something deep and painful, but it's great to connect with the audience. — Neil Diamond

Love on the rocks, ain't no surprise. Pour me a drink and I'll tell you some lies. — Neil Diamond

While the sun God will may your day, sing as a song in search of a voice that is silent, and the one God will make for your way. — Neil Diamond

Then come and as we lay, beside this sleepy glade, there I will sing to you my Longfellow serenade. — Neil Diamond

Well, I loved singing in the chorus, and there was some connection for me between gospel and choral music. — Neil Diamond

I like having a woman. I like having someone to come home to, to make all of the hard work feel worth it. I need someone with me. And I want someone. — Neil Diamond

Love is still a simple act of faith, and a faithful heart is always worth the wait. — Neil Diamond

The lyrics aren't simple, either. They're extremely difficult because I'm trying to say complicated things in as few words as possible. — Neil Diamond

I don't pamper my voice. It's part of my body. If my body is rested and healthy, my voice is rested and healthy. — Neil Diamond

I was always trying to win the world, but somewhere I lost you. — Neil Diamond

I fell in love with folk music at Surprise Lake Camp. It was the songs of Woody Guthrie and the Weavers. — Neil Diamond

Pride is the chief cause in the decline in the number of husbands and wives. — Neil Diamond

The music is key. It has the power to transport you. I go from being a slightly insecure, shy kind of a person offstage, to this super-confident, motivated, entity onstage. — Neil Diamond

My voice is unadorned. I don't try for perfection. I try to be honest and truthful and soulful with the voice I have. If I make mistakes in notes, or there are cracks in notes, I don't fix them. That's the way it is. — Neil Diamond

I followed all life's pleasures wherever they would lead, but someone I can treasure is all I really need. — Neil Diamond

Being lost is worth the being found. — Neil Diamond

Some are born who never need them, Others still who never read them, signs. — Neil Diamond

All my songs are based on melody, which is retrieved from my Jewish heritage. Melody will always exist no matter what the rhythmic changes there are. — Neil Diamond

I've always accepted some kind of deity, especially as a songwriter. — Neil Diamond

When you're on a merry-go-round, you miss a lot of the scenery. — Neil Diamond

I'm trying to find the truth in myself. To play somebody else doesn't interest me. It's not the focus of my life. I can get through most scenes and do the acting part of it, and at best, I'm going to be mediocre. — Neil Diamond

You're alive, you might as well be glad. — Neil Diamond

Of all the songs that I've written since I was 15 or 16, every song is different every song is special, it happens in a different way and I like that. — Neil Diamond

There's a mystery to writing, and you don't really know where most of it comes from. — Neil Diamond

Drop your shrink and stop your drinkin', crunchy granola's neat. — Neil Diamond

I came back to performing with a different attitude about performing and myself. I wasn't expecting perfection any more, just hoping for an occasional inspiration. — Neil Diamond

I had always sung in my dad's shop. I worked there after school, and I'd be singing along with the top-40 records of the day. — Neil Diamond

I've looked at photographs of myself during concerts and it sometimes looks as if I'm in a fencing move, with a guitar in my hands instead of a sword. — Neil Diamond

Worse than bad reviews is to be ignored. — Neil Diamond

The main objective in any song, the songs that I write, has always been that it reflect the way I feel, that it touch me when I'm finished with it, that it moves me, that it can take me along with it and involve me in what its saying. — Neil Diamond

Chelsea Morning is a great Joni Mitchell song and I guess I'm partial to her lyrics because they show me a slightly different perspective on life. — Neil Diamond

Money talks, but it don't sing and dance, and it don't walk. And long as I can have you here with me, I'd much rather be, forever in blue jeans. — Neil Diamond

My writing is different. I think it's better. I think it's deeper. But, strangely enough, it covers a lot of the old ground. Maybe it says it in a more sophisticated way ... but I [have written] about basically the same subjects over the years. — Neil Diamond

I get good vibes from people. There is a thread of DNA that runs from the days that I was a young teenager to these days. It feels good to go back there. — Neil Diamond

When I am not writing, I'm dying. — Neil Diamond

Shame, it comes in every size, touches many lives, knocks on many doors. — Neil Diamond

I got worries by the ton, getting cancer's only one. Over taxed and alimonied, tired of eating fried baloney. — Neil Diamond