Van Dyke Parks Quotes & Sayings

The older I get, the better I was. — Van Dyke Parks

You know, any sane magician would never reveal his method of deception. And I don't think that a sensible musician would either. — Van Dyke Parks

I think that smoking is a very good thing to do
it's got the association with the Indians; it's a peaceable thing. But like much else that the Indians gave us, we abused the privilege. And so, in my case I must simply stop. I'm too old to smoke. But I do believe that nicotine provides a great creative thrust ... — Van Dyke Parks

To make a collaboration succeed there can be no visible contusions or abrasions. For the collaboration to succeed, the relationship must be nourished and survive. That is absolutely essential for a collaboration to succeed. — Van Dyke Parks

Well, to me, the tensile strength and the very definition of an artist is something that I would place at the top of a vertical hierarchy. To be an artist is to suffer and to lead a life without shelter. It takes a great amount of daring-do, self reinvention, imagination, familial loyalty, sacrifice, economic uncertainty, and the right to be wrong, the right to fail in order to achieve something of noticeable value. — Van Dyke Parks