Sylvian Quotes & Sayings

Sometimes a little compromise isn't a bad thing. You don't need to be precious about it. — David Sylvian

I achieved something I'd never achieved before in writing a lyric about myself which had no answer. It had a question about religion. I've got this thing with religions in general. I'm interested in people's philosophies and why they cling to them. Do they need something to rely upon because they are not strong enough in their own life, or are they clinging to them because there's a real value that I miss? At the time, I was becoming more obsessed about Christian religion, and Forbidden Colours was the first time I achieved that kind of writing, putting something into the lyrics that was just an expression of what I was going through, that had no ending. It was very honest, and that's what made me decide to carry on writing. I couldn't go back. I was just incapable of getting out so I just wrote directly about myself. — Christopher E. Young

The BBC must never be all about ratings - or even mainly about ratings. In the past year, we have made a raft of terrific programmes which stand comparison with the best the BBC has ever done: 'Blue Planet,' 'Walking with Beasts,' 'Son of God,' 'Clocking Off,' 'The Way We Live Now,' 'Conspiracy,' 'Lost World.' — Gavyn Davies

Fear can't be reasoned with. Neither can hate. They're like love. They're almost identical emotions. — Rick Riordan

Sadness can be romantic but it's dangerous to play on it. — Christopher E. Young

Those who kill can never be forgiven, for their victims cannot forgive them. And they go, drenched in guilt, to their graves. [Sylvian] — Karen Maitland

There is no higher soul than that of man and it is from man that the stone of eternal life must be drawn. Therefore the book that contains the knowledge of that stone must be wrapped in human flesh. No matter how sick a man might be, no matter what his deformities, his healing lies within these pages. [Sylvian] — Karen Maitland

Don't you have faith in your Saviour that He will raise you to life again? (...) Isn't that what you teach those grieving widows and bereft parents? (...) But you don't really believe that. You see nothing beyond the grave, so you are determined never to enter it. You want eternal life for yourself now, here in the flesh. You want to remain just as you are now, while all around you wither and die. (...) You crave the power that will come only when you can outlive them all. [Sylvian] — Karen Maitland

During the lifetime of Japan I became very neurotic, very paranoid. — David Sylvian

If you want to change the climate of your marriage immediately, start praying for your spouse — Justin Davis

Sensibility of mind is indeed the parent of every virtue, but it is the parent of much misery, too. — Thomas Jefferson

The Song of Songs, the book of Ruth, and the cycle of stories associated with King David demonstrate that biblical perspectives on sexual desire and family ties remain much more complicated than is often thought. The appropriate expression of desire is not limited to marriage between a man and a woman, but can include the love of a son of a king for his charismatic ally, the love of rabbis and theologians for God, their "husband," and the love of a faithful Moabite for her Israelite mother-in-law. The nuclear family is also not idealized: Naomi, Ruth, and Obed are a family, bound together by their common love for one another, and, in the Song of Songs, the woman's mother supports her daughter's premarital encounters over the objections of her sons, who seek to control their sister's sexuality and are overruled. King David never even bothers to pursue marriage as commonly envisioned today. His — Jennifer Wright Knust

I like to explore a lot of textural, arrangement aspects in the studio. — David Sylvian

Why do you want to die?'
I shivered. For a second I couldn't breathe.
'You knew ... ?'
She gave a sad smile.
'I'm your mother. — Mitch Albom

I think nowadays it doesn't really matter where we are physically located. We create our own culture around us to a large extent, whether it's what we're listening to, what we're watching, what we're reading - it can have very little to do with one's immediate cultural environment. We are in a global culture in that respect. — David Sylvian

I have been wronged by so many men that I find it hard to trust anyone and see only greed and malice in every heart. [Sylvian] — Karen Maitland

The things that were needed to keep the imagination free were "all written down in this age of reason." It was time to take the opportunity to use this imagination. All bets were off, "Fire at will." Standing next to the message in Pulling Punches, where there was only the faintest hint of solace, the message in The Ink in the Well seemed to be that in Picasso, Cocteau, and Sartre, a home of sorts had been found that went some way to - if not answering the questions - opening the mind to give the insight possible to find the answers. The references to Sartre and Cocteau were oblique and hidden in the phrase "The blood of a poet, the ink in the well, it's all written down in this age of reason. — Christopher E. Young

I don't listen to a lot of music any more and even the people I've loved for years - the Nick Drakes of this world - I can't go back to them and listen to them over and over. — David Sylvian

The public so often want to freeze the artist in a moment in time when they were at their peak, and they want the artist to revisit it over and over again as if it was something authentic. — David Sylvian

Zen Buddhism is a discipline where belief isn't necessary. — David Sylvian

The proposition is peace. Not peace through the medium of war; not peace to be hunted through the labyrinth of intricate and endless negotiations; not peace to arise out of universal discord, fomented from principle, in all parts of the empire; not peace to depend on the juridical determination of perplexing questions, or the precise marking the shadowy boundaries of a complex government. It is simple peace, sought in its natural course and in its ordinary haunts. It is peace sought in the spirit of peace, and laid in principles purely pacific. — Edmund Burke

People are afraid to ask musicians to be involved in projects because they anticipate being turned down. Young artists hesitate before contacting me. People in my position don't get approached often enough. — David Sylvian

I knew that I had to find my own voice, both figuratively and literally. — David Sylvian

You are the sacred consummation of the sun and the moon and the shadow and you will become the poison of death. [Sylvian] — Karen Maitland

Creating a decent pop song is a challenge - and occasionally, once in every decade - it's kind of fun to do that. — David Sylvian

I don't know a high C from a low C. — Brett Somers

I'll go walking in circles
While doubting the very ground beneath me
Trying to show unquestioning faith in everything — David Sylvian

The essence of the moon, gathered by a virgin, added to the death of innocence. [Sylvian] — Karen Maitland

I'm obsessed with books. — David Sylvian

It wasn't my natural inclination to get into writing protest songs. — David Sylvian

We in the Middle East like to talk politics, we like to argue. Just look at the three prophets - Moses, Jesus and Mohammad. They are all from this small region which creates problems all the time. — Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani

How long have I been here? I haven't been able to tell day from night with eyes covered." [Vincent]
"Nor could you anyway, in here. There are no windows and the walls are so thick you cannot hear the church bells. It was built so that the one who prayed here would not be aware of the passage of time or the world outside. When we reach into the higher planes, we pass beyond time. Only the body is governed by time, but that too, I will change". [Sylvian] — Karen Maitland