Sting Quotes & Sayings

I drive back into town with the two crinkly notes in my pocket and wonder if I could support a family this way, doomed to play dinner dances until I too have one foot in the grave. I shudder at the possibility, and think about poor Meg in her sickbed. What am I going to do? On the way back I pass a big roundabout at the end of the Coast Road. It is March, and the roundabout is covered in daffodils. I circle it twice, an idea forming in my head. I park in a nearby street. It is early morning and there is no one around. I check for police cars and head across the road to the roundabout. Half an hour later I let myself into Megan's flat and slowly open her bedroom door. My arms are full of daffodils, maybe a hundred all told, their drooping yellow trumpets lighting up the entire room. Meg starts to cry, and so do I. The next morning our prayers are answered, but our relief is mixed with a subtle, unspoken regret. — Sting

There's no religion but sex and music. — Sting

I try to give the media as many confusing images as I can to retain my freedom. What's real is for my children and the people I live with. — Sting

Success always necessitates a degree of ruthlessness. Given the choice of friendship or success, I'd probably choose success. — Sting

Like music, yoga is a journey
one that is long enough so you keep developing, and keep learning. I don't see an end to it. — Sting

Every ripple on the ocean, every leaf on every tree, every sand dune in the desert, every power we never see. — Sting

When there's no information and the compass turns to nowhere that you know well, let your soul be your pilot. — Sting

An uncle of mine emigrated to Canada and couldn't take his guitar with him. When I found it in the attic, I'd found a friend for life. — Sting

Humans make the mistake of believing that it is their right to survive. Species die out on this planet all the time without anyone noticing. The planet will still be there, and we must lose this attitude of divine right, that something will save us ... — Sting

I think you can get the wrong impression about me from my work and think I'm always a bit down. I'm not that way at all. I'm fun-loving. — Sting

Nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could, for all those born beneath an angry star, lest we forget how fragile we are. — Sting

Nothing in your life is beyond redemption. — Sting

I was brought up as a Catholic and went to church every week and took the sacraments. It never really touched the core of my being. — Sting

I realize that nothing's as it seems. — Sting

Love is stronger than justice. — Sting

It's a big enough umbrella, but it's always me that ends up getting wet. — Sting

I hate most of what constitutes rock music, which is basically middle-aged crap. — Sting

He deals the cards to find the answer
The sacred geometry of chance
The hidden law of a probable outcome
The numbers lead a dance
I know that the spades
Are the swords of a soldier
I know that the clubs are weapons of war
I know that diamonds
Mean money for this art
But that's not the shape of my heart — Sting

Our so-called leaders speak
With words they try to jail you
The subjugate the meek
But it's the rhetoric of failure — Sting

If "Manners maketh man," as someone said
Then he's the hero of the day
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself, no matter what they say."
(Englishman in New York) — Sting

In my quest to become unique, I've become a statistic. — Sting

I exist in a state of almost perpetual hysteria. — Sting

The more irrational of us are worried about the millennium ending - as if a date would really matter. — Sting

They build machines they can't control, and bury the waste in a great big hole. — Sting

If you love someone, set them free. — Sting

Sweet desert rose
Each of her veils, a secret promise
This desert flower
No sweet perfume ever tortured me more than this — Sting

Mr. Breschnev says we will bury you, I don't subscribe to that point of view. It seems like such an ignorant thing to do, if the Russians love their children, too. — Sting

A lot of people approach risk as if it's the enemy when it's really fortune's accomplice. — Sting

The world is ruled by butterflies adding to their weapon piles. Imagine what your taxes buy. We hardly ever try. — Sting

I don't belong to a church or political party or a group of any kind. I feel that Amnesty International is the most civilized organization in history. Its currency is the written word. Its weapon is the letter; that's why I am a member. I believe in its non-violence; I believe in its effectiveness. Its dignity and its sense of commitment. Its focus on individuals and the concentration and tenacity with which they defend those imprisoned for their ideas has earned it the cautious respect of repressive governments throughout the world. — Sting

Yoga is almost like music in a way; there's no end to it. — Sting

I miss England. I miss the weather. I've spent moss of the last 25 years on tour. I'm ready to come home. — Sting

I find that the rhythm of going on long walks will suggest melodies. — Sting

I think there's room for both private exploration and group work in Yoga. — Sting

Without the voice of reason, every faith is its own curse.
(History Will Teach Us Nothing) — Sting

At night a candle's brighter than the sun — Sting

If I were a Brazilian without land or money or the means to feed my children, I would be burning the rain forest too. — Sting

I think I'm a focus for international attention. — Sting

I always stayed fit because I'm a performer, and all of those things help me to perform. — Sting

I learned to change my accent; in England, your accent identifies you very strongly with a class, and I did not want to be held back. — Sting

I don't need to manufacture trauma in my life to be creative. I have a big enough reservoir of sadness or emotional trauma to last me. — Sting

The logical process will often be the safe one. I tend, when I'm given that choice, to go the way that's not safe. — Sting

Like Yoga, the spiritual life is actually very difficult. — Sting

If manners maketh the man as someone said, then he's the hero of the day. — Sting

I've spent too many years at war with myself, the doctor has told me it's not good for my health. — Sting

Let your pain be my sorrow. Let your tears be my tears too. Let your courage be my model. That the north you find will be true. — Sting

I made two movies before The Police had a hit record: I did Quadrophenia and a film called Radio On. — Sting

Letizia Gambi is a stunning vocalist — Sting

Don't judge me, you could be me in another life. — Sting

How can I save my little boy from Oppenheimer's deadly toy? — Sting

I have a big problem with piped music. I like either silence or to listen to it properly. — Sting

You could say I lost my faith in science and progress
You could say I lost my belief in the holy Church
You could say I lost my sense of direction
You could say all of this and worse, ...

Some would say I was a lost man in a lost world
You could say I lost my faith in the people on TV
You could say I'd lost my belief in our politicians
They all seemed like game show hosts to me...

I never saw no miracle of science
That didn't go from a blessing to a curse
I never saw no military solution
That didn't always end up as something worse

--Excerpts from "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You — Sting

I really wanted to work with David Lynch. I was a big fan of The Elephant Man and Eraserhead. — Sting

Every day another miracle
Only death will tear us apart
To sacrifice a life for yours
I'd be the blood of the Lazarus heart
The blood of the Lazarus heart — Sting

I write the music, produce it and the band plays within the parameters that I set. — Sting

I never made promises lightly
There may have been some that I've broken
But I swear in the days still left
We will walk in fields of gold — Sting

If you love somebody, set them free. — Sting

I'm very much afraid of being mad - that's my one fear. — Sting

Songs are built by whimsy, faulty memory, and free association. — Sting

I see a city in the desert lies
The vanity of an ancient king
But the city lies in broken pieces
While the wind howls and the vultures sing — Sting

One of the rewards of success is freedom, the ability to do whatever you like. — Sting

Takes more than combat boots to make a man. — Sting

If you make your living writing, and you can't write anything, it's over. It's very frightening. — Sting

Convince an enemy, convince him that he's wrong. To win a bloodless battle, the victory is long. A simple act of faith, reason over might. To blow up his children would only prove him right. — Sting

The compass spins between heaven and hell, let your soul be your pilot, let your soul guide you. — Sting

I think I mentioned to Bob [Geldof] I could make love for eight hours. What I didn't say was that this included four hours of begging and then dinner and a movie. — Sting

Our politicians, they all seemed like game show hosts to me. — Sting

Turn the clock to zero, honey, we're starting up a brand new day. — Sting

I do my best work when I am in pain and turmoil. — Sting

I quite like mistakes. I think they're human. — Sting

If you really want to define civilization it should be a culture that doesn't destroy its environment. If you burn down the kitchen one day and expect to eat the next, it is not even intelligent, let alone civilized. — Sting

Great music as much about the space in between the notes as it is about the notes themselves. — Sting

I see music as one language. If one musical form eats its own tail, it dies. So it needs to be a mongrel, it needs to be hybridised. — Sting

I don't drink coffee I take tea my dear
I like my toast done on one side. — Sting

There is no monopoly on common sense on either side of the political fence. — Sting

I come from a family of losers, and I've rejected my family as something I don't want to be like. — Sting

It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile. — Sting

I've been the lowest low on the planet, I've been a sinner all my days. And I was living with my hands on the trigger, I had no sense to change my ways. — Sting

My friends are Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, and we're singing about mortality, getting older. It's an interesting time. — Sting

That sense of failure, I don't know where people put it who don't write songs and aren't able to emote physically. It must go somewhere. — Sting

My comfortable existence is reduced to a shallow meaningless party. — Sting

I don't think happiness is necessarily the reason we're here. I think we're here to learn and evolve, and the pursuit of knowledge is what alleviates the pain of being human. — Sting

Every road I walked would take me down to the sea
With every broken promise in my sack
And every love would always send the ship of my heart
Over the rolling sea — Sting

I don't understand American football at all. It looks like all-in wrestling with crash helmets. — Sting

I ask myself what making it really means. I know I want to make my living solely as a musician, but I also want to be recognized as someone unique, defined by my voice, by my abilities as a songwriter, to have the world know my songs and my melodies just as they had known and acknowledged the songs of the Beatles. I want to do this on my own terms, I want to be singular, and if that means being marginalized, then so be it. I will become stronger, and even if no one else knows who I am, I shall know myself. — Sting

I was famous overnight. I went from nowhere to being really big. — Sting

The acceptance of death gives you more of a stake in life, in living life happily, as it should be lived. Living for the moment. — Sting

I want to get old gracefully. I want to have good posture, I want to be healthy and be an example to my children. — Sting

I went off to fight some battle that I'd invented inside me. — Sting

I've never lost perspective on who I am. Well, maybe briefly, but generally I'm pretty balanced. — Sting

Honor the community you come from. Tell their stories. — Sting

My logic's been drowned in a sea of emotion. — Sting

He knows that something somewhere has to break/He sees the family home now looming in the headlights/The pain upstairs that makes his eyeballs ache/
Many miles away there's a shadow on the door of a cottage/on the shore of a dark Scottish lake — Sting

When the world is running down, you make the best of what's still around. — Sting

Yoga introduced me to a style of meditation. The only meditation I would have done before would be in the writing of songs. — Sting

Every day is a brand new day! — Sting

So just to be truthful to my own sensibility, I need to acknowledge that the season is not all joy and light for a lot of people. It's tough - environmentally, emotionally, spiritually. — Sting

I've spent a bit of time with the Prince of Wales, who I respect greatly. I'd give two cheers for the Monarchy. — Sting

...being in love is to be relieved of gravity. — Sting

Intellectually I'm probably a Republican. — Sting