David Bowie quotes

“It amazes me sometimes that even intelligent people will analyze a situation or make a judgement after only recognizing the standard or traditional structure of a piece.”

— David Bowie

“I don't know where I'm going from here, but I promise it won't be boring.”

— David Bowie

“I'm an instant star. Just add water and stir.”

— David Bowie

“Heathenism is a state of mind. You can take it that I'm referring to one who does not see his world. He has no mental light. He destroys almost unwittingly. He cannot feel any Gods presence in his life. He is the 21st century man.”

— David Bowie

“I'm always amazed that people take what I say seriously. I don't even take what I am seriously.”

— David Bowie

“The truth is of course is that there is no journey. We are arriving and departing all at the same time.”

— David Bowie

“I'm in awe of the universe, but I don't necessarily believe there's an intelligence or agent behind it. I do have a passion for the visual in religious rituals, though, even though they may be completely empty and bereft of substance. The incense is powerful and provocative, whether Buddhist or Catholic.”

— David Bowie

“Frankly, I mean, sometimes the interpretations I've seen on some of the songs that I've written are a lot more interesting than the input that I put in.”

— David Bowie

“I think Mick Jagger would be astounded and amazed if he realized that to many people he is not a sex symbol, but a mother image.”

— David Bowie

“The humanists' replacement for religion: work really hard and somehow you'll either save yourself or you'll be immortal. Of course, that's a total joke, and our progress is nothing. There may be progress in technology but there's no ethical progress whatsoever.”

— David Bowie

“As you get older, the questions come down to about two or three. How long? And what do I do with the time I've got left?”

— David Bowie

“I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human.”

— David Bowie

“On the other hand, what I like my music to do to me is awaken the ghosts inside of me. Not the demons, you understand, but the ghosts.”

— David Bowie

“I'm looking for backing for an unauthorized auto-biography that I am writing. Hopefully, this will sell in such huge numbers that I will be able to sue myself for an extraordinary amount of money and finance the film version in which I will play everybody.”

— David Bowie

“Confront a corpse at least once. The absolute absence of life is the most disturbing and challenging confrontation you will ever have.”

— David Bowie

“I'm not a prophet or a stone aged man, just a mortal with potential of a superman. I'm living on.”

— David Bowie

“When you think about it, Adolf Hitler was the first pop star.”

— David Bowie

“Funk, I don't think I have anything to do with funk. I've never considered myself funky.”

— David Bowie

“I don't have stylistic loyalty. That's why people perceive me changing all the time. But there is a real continuity in my subject matter. As an artist of artifice, I do believe I have more integrity than any one of my contemporaries.”

— David Bowie

“I had to resign myself, many years ago, that I'm not too articulate when it comes to explaining how I feel about things. But my music does it for me, it really does.”

— David Bowie

“I believe that I often bring out the best in somebody's talents.”

— David Bowie

“I felt I really wanted to back off from music completely and just work within the visual arts in some way. I started painting quite passionately at that time.”

— David Bowie

“I think it all comes back to being very selfish as an artist. I mean, I really do just write and record what interests me and I do approach the stage shows in much the same way.”

— David Bowie

“I re-invented my image so many times that I'm in denial that I was originally an overweight Korean woman.”

— David Bowie

“I'm just an individual who doesn't feel that I need to have somebody qualify my work in any particular way. I'm working for me.”

— David Bowie

“Pixies and Sonic Youth were so important to the eighties.”

— David Bowie

“Questioning my spiritual life has always been germane to what I was writing. Always. It's because I'm not quite an atheist and it worries me. There's that little bit that holds on: 'Well, I'm almost an atheist. Give me a couple of months.'”

— David Bowie

“Sometimes you stumble across a few chords that put you in a reflective place.”

— David Bowie

“But I'm pretty good with collaborative thinking. I work well with other people.”

— David Bowie

“But I've got to think of myself as the luckiest guy. Robert Johnson only had one album's worth of work as his legacy. That's all that life allowed him.”

— David Bowie