Van Morrison Quotes & Sayings

I deliberately try not to cater for the commercial market, so I can't see myself in competition, you know, with second or third generation rock stars. — Van Morrison

I don't think nostalgia has to be negative. — Van Morrison

Become enraptured by the sights and sounds in intrigue of nature and beauty, come along with me and take it all in. Come here my love. — Van Morrison

You know what they're writing about Baby you know what they're writing about It's a thing called love down through the ages Makes you wanna cry sometimes Makes you feel like you wanna lay down and die sometimes Makes you high sometimes But when you really get in it lifts you right up. — Van Morrison

When I started you were more in touch with the people you were playing to. There wasn't the distance or the separation that there is now. — Van Morrison

The summer breeze was blowing on your face
Within your violet you treasure your summery words
And as the shiver from my neck down to my spine
Ignited me in daylight and nature in the garden — Van Morrison

Don't lose the wonder in your eyes
It's right there when you smile ...
If we go back, for a while
Let me go back, for a while
To that magic time — Van Morrison

When the spirit moves me, I can do many wondrous things. — Van Morrison

If you get into introspective blues or something where you're stretching out a bit, large audiences don't respond to this, so you have to give them what they want, basically. — Van Morrison

Well, it's a marvelous night for a Moondance
With the stars up above in your eyes ...
And I'm trying to please to the calling
Of your heart-strings that they play soft and low
And all the night's magic seems to whisper and hush
And all the soft moonlight seems to shine in your blush ...
One more Moondance with you in the moonlight
On a magic night — Van Morrison

From the dark end of the street - To the bright side of the road - We'll be lovers once again on the - Bright side of the road — Van Morrison

Music to me is spontaneous, writing is spontaneous and it's all based on not trying to do it. From beginning to end, whether it's writing a song, or playing guitar, or a particular chord sequence, or blowing a horn, it's based on improvisation and spontaneity. — Van Morrison

Your street, rich street or poor Used to always be sure, on your street There's a place in your heart you know from the start Can't be complete outside of the street Keep moving on through the joy and the pain Sometimes you got to look back To the street again Would you prefer all those castles in Spain? Or the view of your street from your window pane? — Van Morrison

Go up to the mountain, go up to the glen, where silence will touch you, and heartbreak will mend. — Van Morrison

In the gentle evening freeze, by the whispering shady trees I will find sanctuary in the Lord. — Van Morrison

Way over on the railroad, Tomorrow all the tipping trucks will unload together, Every scrapbook stuck with glue, And I'll stand beside you, Beside you, child. — Van Morrison

You can't stop us on the road to freedom, you can't stop us cause our eyes can see. — Van Morrison

You learn to read the audiences after a while, and there are all different kinds of gigs. — Van Morrison

There is no black-and-white situation. It's all part of life. Highs, lows, middles. — Van Morrison

These days politics, religion, media seem to get all mixed up. Television became the new religion a long time back and the media has taken over. — Van Morrison

The first piece of music that captured my imagination was probably Ray Charles Live At Newport. — Van Morrison

When I think of that dear rugged cross where the dear Saviour gave his all ... When I feel like I'm on my last go round, see me through. — Van Morrison

Hark, now hear the sailors cry, smell the sea, and feel the sky let your soul & spirit fly, into the mystic ... — Van Morrison

As a developing musician, skiffle became a platform for me to start playing music. — Van Morrison

Love of the simple is all that I need, I've no time for schism or lovers of greed. — Van Morrison

When I started studying tenor saxophone as a kid in Belfast, I did so with a guy named George Cassidy, who was also a big inspiration. — Van Morrison

I have seen without perceiving I have been another man Let me pierce the realm of glamour So I know just what I am. — Van Morrison

You've got to separate the singer and the songs. — Van Morrison

I do see value in music criticism. Most of the criticism I have received over the years has been very good. — Van Morrison

There's always stress involved in any genre or art form, there's always going to be a struggle. If there's no struggle, you wouldn't do anything. What are you going do? Retire? — Van Morrison

It will make you feel good, and it will make you feel whole, when the spirit moves you and it fills you through and through. — Van Morrison

You can call it nostalgia, I don't mind
Standing on that windswept hillside
Listening to the church bells chime
Listen to the church bells chime
In that magic time ... — Van Morrison

Jackie Wilson said it was Reet-Petite, kind of love you got knock me off my feet. — Van Morrison

You have to understand a bit about the poetry of the blues to know where the references are coming from. — Van Morrison

A fantabulous night to make romance. — Van Morrison

In deep confusion, in great despair, when I reach out for him, he is there. When I am lonely as I can be, then I know God shines his light on me. — Van Morrison

If you're a pop singer, you don't need to evolve. You just get a set together, have some hit songs and play them over and over. — Van Morrison

Sometimes, when the spirit moves me I can do many wondrous things I wanna know when the spirit moves you Did ye get healed? — Van Morrison

Ambition will take you And ride you too far and Conservatism bring you to boredom once more Sit down by the river And watch the stream flow Recall all the dreams That you once used to know The things you've forgotten That took you away To pastures not greener but meaner. — Van Morrison

I think when you get past your second album, it all becomes something of a routine. So you have to struggle against that, find a way of making what you do sound fresh and new each time. — Van Morrison

If you never hear from me that just means I would rather not. — Van Morrison

My records do not require a lot of thought of 'What is this?' and 'What is that?' That would be too contrived for me. — Van Morrison

These are the days of the endless summer, these are the days, the time is now. There is no past, there's only future, there's only here, there's only now. — Van Morrison

I am about the arrangements and the layers of depth in the music. — Van Morrison

This Hollywood ain't no good, I would rather be like Robin Hood. — Van Morrison

I'm very lucky, I'm happy with life because my experiences led me to do what I had to do. I don't have any regrets whatsoever. — Van Morrison

I shall drive my chariot down your street and cry hey it's me. — Van Morrison

I educated myself. To me, school was boring. — Van Morrison

Well I've got to get out of the rat-race now I'm tired of the ways of mice and men And the empires all turning into rust again. Out of everything nothing remains the same That's why I'm cloud hidden Cloud hidden Whereabouts unknown. — Van Morrison

Illusions and pipe dreams on the one hand
And straight reality is always cold — Van Morrison

I never bought the commercial thing, at any stage of the game. — Van Morrison

I just need somewhere to dump all my negativity. — Van Morrison

No guru, no method, no teacher, just you and I and nature, and the father in the garden. — Van Morrison

Way across the country where the hillside mountains glide, the dynamo of your smile caressed the barefoot virgin child. — Van Morrison

Into the Music was about the first album where I felt, 'I'm starting here' ... the Wavelength thing, I didn't really feel that was me. — Van Morrison

When the ghost comes round at midnight Well you both can have some fun He can drive you mad, he can make you sad He can keep you from the sun When they take him down, he'll be both safe and sound And the hand does fit the glove And no matter what they tell you, There's good and evil in everyone. — Van Morrison

The wild night is calling. — Van Morrison

Enlightenment says the world is nothing Nothing but a dream, everything's an illusion And nothing is real. — Van Morrison

Laying underneath the stars Can be so much fun Especially when you're feeling good When you're with the one you love. — Van Morrison

Don't want to discuss it, I think it's time for a change You may get disgusted, some think that I'm strange In that case I'll go underground, get some heavy rest Never have to worry, about what is worst and what is best. — Van Morrison

You have to remember that writing those sorta songs is not reality, it's more like trance, dream, y'know, like dreamwork. The mythical thing can enter the creating but there's the mythical place and the real place. And there's both ... I get it between waking and sleeping. Or, when I'm doing something else. I don't sit down and think I'm gonna write about subject X or subject Y. I could be doing something and an impression comes in from outside and the song emerges out of that. It's never thought about or contrived. — Van Morrison

It's all complete instinct and intuition, and that's extremely difficult to teach. — Van Morrison

When heart is open, you will change just like a flower slowly opening. — Van Morrison

When it's not always raining there'll be days like this. When there's no one complaining there'll be days like this. When everything falls into place like the flick of a switch. Well my mama told me there'll be days like this. — Van Morrison

Won't You guide me through the dark night of the soul That I may better understand Your way ... Let me purify my thoughts and words and deeds That I may be a vehicle for Thee ... Give me my rapture today. — Van Morrison

Smell the sea and feel the sky. — Van Morrison

Common one, my illuminated one, oh my high in the art of suffering. Take a walk with me. — Van Morrison

All the girls walk by dressed up for each other, and the boys do the boogie woogie on the corner of the street. — Van Morrison

I write songs. Then, I record them. And, later, maybe I perform them on stage. That's what I do. That's my job. Simple. — Van Morrison

I put out records to this day that are not necessarily in a sequence of anything. Some could be written a while back, some not. There is no set pattern. — Van Morrison

If you live the life you love, you get the blessing from above. — Van Morrison

You can't stay the same. If you're a musician and a singer, you have to change, that's the way it works. — Van Morrison

Enlightenment, don't know what it is. It's up to you, the way you think. — Van Morrison

Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea They thought great thoughts about liberty Poets wrote down words that did fit Writers wrote books Thinkers thought about it. — Van Morrison

I've never felt like I was born with a silver spoon at all, although I've felt like howling at the moon a lot of times! — Van Morrison

There's no difference between lyrics and poetry. Words are words. The only difference is the people who are in academic positions and call themselves poets and have an academic stance. They've got something to lose if they say it's all poetry; if there's not music to it, and you have to wear a certain kind of checkered shirt or something like that. It's all the same. Lyrics are lyrics, poetry is poetry, lyrics are poetry, and poetry is lyrics. They are interchangeable to me. — Van Morrison

Have I told you lately that I love you, have I told you lately there's no one above you. Fill my heart with gladness, take away all my sadness, ease my troubles, that's what you do. — Van Morrison

Memories, how they linger in the twilight and in the wee small hours sometimes just before dawn. — Van Morrison

When all the dark clouds roll away And the sun begins to shine I see my freedom from across the way And it comes right in on time Well it shines so bright and it gives so much light And it comes from the sky above Makes me feel so free makes me feel like me And lights my life with love. — Van Morrison

Skiffle was blues featuring a washboard and acoustic instruments. It encompassed blues, with elements of folk, jazz, and, at times, American country-and-western music. — Van Morrison

Hearing the blues changed my life. — Van Morrison

The fog of illusion, the fog of confusion is hanging all over the world. — Van Morrison

At the end of the day, we should give thanks and pray, to the one, to the one. — Van Morrison

Skiffle was a name that was attached to what was, in essence, American folk music with a beat. — Van Morrison

Once in a blue moon someone like you comes along. — Van Morrison

A famous person to themselves, they don't get up in the morning and think, I'm famous. I'm not famous to me. Famous is a perception. — Van Morrison

I never, ever said that I was a nice guy. — Van Morrison

I'm a working man in my prime cleaning windows. — Van Morrison

Let your soul and spirit fly. — Van Morrison

If I ventured in the slipstream between the viaducts of your dreams, where immobile steel rims crack and the ditch in the back roads stop. Could you find me? — Van Morrison

I never paid attention to what was contemporary or what was commercial, it didn't mean anything to me. — Van Morrison

Do you remember the time darlin' when everything made more sense in the world? Oh I remember, I remember ... when life made more sense ... Take me back, take me back, take me way back ... to when life made more sense. — Van Morrison

I had my eyes closed in the dark, I sighed a million sighs, I told a million lies, to myself, to myself. — Van Morrison

You take stuff from different places, and sometimes you stick a line in because it rhymes, not because it makes sense. — Van Morrison

Oh won't you stay Stay a while with your own ones Don't ever stray Stray so far from your own ones 'Cause the world is so cold Don't care nothing for your soul That you share with your own ones. — Van Morrison

For a long time, I couldn't actually deal with playing concerts; it was a totally alien concept to me, 'cause I was used to playing in clubs and dance halls. — Van Morrison

Let go into the Mystery, let yourself go. You've got to open up your heart, that's all I know. Trust what I say and do what you're told, and baby, all your dirt will turn into gold. — Van Morrison

The way I was singing the songs was jazz — Van Morrison

You gotta fight every day to keep mediocrity at bay ... — Van Morrison

I'm not a rock singer and I don't want to be a rock singer. I'm not interested. It doesn't seem to get across. — Van Morrison