Rateliff Quotes & Sayings

There's this element of surprise when you're writing songs, like it's something outside of you that you get to be part of. And it's just exciting. And that's why I keep writing - because I like that feeling. — Nathaniel Rateliff

When I was a kid, we weren't really supposed to listen to secular music. But one day, I found a 'Led Zeppelin IV' cassette tape in the garage, and it was just amazing-sounding music, not like anything I'd heard before. I remember thinking: 'Well, if God created music, why is his music in church not as good as this?' — Nathaniel Rateliff

What exercise is to the body, employment is to the mind and morals. — Henry David Thoreau

When I was a kid, my dad kind of forced me to sing the third harmony for our little family group, and I just kind of hated it. I just felt so uncomfortable on stage, too shy. — Nathaniel Rateliff

A man who is doing his True Will has the inertia of the Universe to assist him. — Aleister Crowley

There isn't much of a music scene in Hermann, unless you like polka. But the landscape I grew up in is a part of me. I spent a lot of time in the woods doing a lot of nothing to break the boredom. — Nathaniel Rateliff

Despite his elegant appearance, Mr. Gweta's most striking asset was his alluring personality. Professor Khupe had met few such men in his life. Their warmth made everyone feel like they were their best friend. They were good men. However, they tended to be morally ambidextrous. If a stranger confessed to having been involved in a horrible crime, they would reserve judgment until they found out whether the confessor was the victim or victimizer. Once they knew, they would immediately lend their sympathies to the confessor's position. Their worldview was simple. They supported the first person to confide in them. Such men made good lawyers. — Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

Sometimes, if I allow time to be creative, it doesn't show up. — Nathaniel Rateliff

My mom played 12-string and sang, and my dad could play pretty much any wind instrument and had a great ear for harmony. Soon enough, my sister and I got into music because we were always around it, and people were always listening to it. — Nathaniel Rateliff

My original project was called 'The Wheel'; there's a record out there called 'Desire & The Dissolving Man,' 'The Memory Of Loss' as well. There's also 'Falling Faster Than You Can Run,' also 'Closer'; all of that's on our website. — Nathaniel Rateliff

She taught me that life goes on, and that I had a choice. To lament what I no longer had or be grateful for what remained. — Louise Penny

I watch movies, and if I get the chance to watch television, I'm usually prone to watching something completely mindless and mundane that I don't have to follow so closely. — Billy Burke

Roadrunner wanted to make Born in the Flood the next Nickelback, but I didn't want to be that. I didn't want to be a huge rock star playing songs I didn't like. I didn't want to be stuck playing 'Anthem,' the song everybody liked but I didn't want to put on the record, for the next five years. — Nathaniel Rateliff

One of my initial memories of being taken over by music was watching Paul McCartney on TV play a tribute to John Lennon. He was playing piano by himself and singing 'Imagine,' and I remember feeling an anxiety and shortness of breath. — Nathaniel Rateliff

Sneak out. He shrugged, as if that should have been a no-brainer. But that was easy for him to say. He was dead. What else could they do to him, take away his birthday? — Rachel Vincent

I've always loved soul, R&B, doo-wop and blues, and I've wanted to make a record like that for years. — Nathaniel Rateliff

If you just compare South Africans to the rest of the world, I think that white South Africans, and especially English-speaking white South Africans, are exactly the same as Brits or Australians or New Zealanders or Canadians or Americans. — Neill Blomkamp

I'd always wanted to do an R&B and soul record; a friend with a studio asked to come by and record a couple of songs, maybe just make a 45. Then the songs started to pour out, and pretty soon we had eight or 10 songs down. — Nathaniel Rateliff

Growing up in the middle of nowhere, there was a lot of twangy music around, but it didn't really connect with me then. — Nathaniel Rateliff

Sometimes, I don't like making emotions your career; something about it is kind of gross. But, at the same time, I want to move people the same way the songs make me feel. — Nathaniel Rateliff

I've always been trying to write songs that hit you in the stomach but ones that make people feel like things will be just fine. — Nathaniel Rateliff

Success will be when I can have a real swimming pool instead of the fifty-dollar one I buy at Kmart every year. But I don't want to get robbed of any authenticity to try and make money. — Nathaniel Rateliff

I'm pretty easily overwhelmed and pretty tough as well. I think I'm tougher than I used to be. There's been a lot of hardship along the way. But that's what life is. And it's how you deal with those things, and how you let them shape you that makes you a better person and defines what sort of person you're going to be. — Nathaniel Rateliff

I first moved to Denver to work with a group called YWAM, 'Youth With a Mission.' I was a kid - I was 18 - and did some work with homeless people. Really, trying to convert people is sort of an awful position to find yourself in, so I quickly, on my own, grew out of religious ideas. — Nathaniel Rateliff

To make one, there must be two. — W. H. Auden

I toured a lot in the U.K. and Europe solo for a lack of funds, really. I left people I'd been playing with for years at home, just because I couldn't afford it. — Nathaniel Rateliff

There's supposedly nothing more than a friendship going on between us, right? So, why does being around you hurt so badly sometimes? I think I might've figured it out tonight. It's because you tell me one thing, but your eyes tell me another, your heart tells me another. Your heart was beating faster than mine today. Why won't you open it up to me? — Penelope Ward

The last album, 'Falling Faster Than You Can Run.' I was really proud of, but then I didn't actually know whether it was going to come out on any label at all. So I didn't know if anyone was going to hear it. Then of course we ended up doing another EP after that called 'Closer.' — Nathaniel Rateliff