Elton john quotes

I can't think of anything until I've got printed words in front of me. I never wake up in the middle of the night with a song in my head.

I grew up at my grandmother's house, and she had a beautiful garden. I used to hate mowing the lawn and weeding, which is what you do when you're a kid. I loathe gardening, but I love gardens, and I have two beautiful gardens.

As a child, as a teenager, I was kind of not allowed to wear fashionable clothes.

Fame attracts lunatics.

Instead of more violence why isn't there a [meeting of religious leaders]. It's all got to be dialogue - that's the only way. Get everybody from each religion together and say 'Listen, this can't go on. Why do we have all this hatred?'

The whole point of being in this business and being blessed and being successful is that you're able to do things for your friends or your family, which means that they can have something special in their lives, too.

Don't let the sun go down on me Although I search myself, it's always someone else I see I'd just allow a fragment of your life to wander free But losing everything is like the sun going down on me

I used to take hostages in my relationships and not let people be independent. It always ended in disaster, because you take away people's identity and they end up full of resentment.

Bands today have to learn their craft by putting the hard work in that we did when we were young performers.

When people go to rehab and come out, they go through a difficult period, a lot of people. I never had that. I was so glad to be rid of all that crap that for me, to learn again and to function as a human being and learn how to participate in the human race again was just pure joy.

So I am deeply saddened and shocked over the current legislation that is now in place against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community here in Russia. In my opinion, it is inhumane and it is isolating.

You and your oven are capable of great things,Remember, no two ovens are the same.

She's got electric boots, a mohair suit, you know I read it in a magazine.

The less I say the more my work gets done.

Welcome to the world of bullshit, my dear. You have arrived.

I'm so proud to be on a Kate Bush record; she's always marched to the beat of her own drum.

I get bombed for breakfast in the morning, I get bombed for dinner.

I love people who expect me to wear great, feathery costumes- and I do it. It's like an actor getting into his costume for his part. I don't really feel that part until I'm into whatever I'm going to wear.

Sometimes when I’m flying over the Alps I think, 'that’s like all the cocaine I sniffed.'

I love to work. It fascinates me. And I love seeing who's coming up, who's got the charisma to last, who's got the intelligence to move on to other things. I'm so glad now that I'm stuck behind the piano, because when you're getting older it's very hard to waddle around the stage.

I'm a very wealthy man.

Goodbye Norma Jean From the young man in the 22nd row Who sees you as something more than sexual More than just our Marilyn Monroe

We live in an age, in an era where there is so much negativity, there is so much violence in the world, there is so much unrest and people are at war, that I wanted to promote the word love and red signifies love.

I'm not going to Russia and tell them to go to hell and think - that's not the way things are done. You chip away at something and you hope that there will be dialogue and that the situation can get better. You don't just go in there with guns blazing and say well, to hell with you because they're going to say to hell with you and get out of the country.

To forgive and be forgiven, if it's the last thing I do, then in death's release I may find the peace that in life I never knew.

It turned out so well because it was the first album that I could identify with in terms of lyrics. ("Captain Fantastic") It was passionate...I could associate myself with every song...It's a unique album in our history. This was the story of us..."Curtains", the lyrics to that are so beautiful because it sums up our friendship so much, and our relationship.

I never thought of myself as being handsome or good-looking or whatever.

Simon Cowell and I are great friends and we wind each other up. Rod Stewart and I do the same thing.

Once you have people around you who don't question you, you're in a dangerous place.

Johnny, can't you come out to play in your empty garden?

I just go into the studio, look at the lyrics for the first time when I put them on the piano, and go. If I haven't got it within 40 minutes, I give up. It's never changed, the thrill has never gone, because I don't know what I'm going to get next.

Everything I thought I'd hate about having children - the crying, the screaming - nothing fazes me. I love it all and it's relaxed me.

There's a lot of hate in the world.

I think religion has always tried to turn hatred towards gay people. Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays. But there are so many Christian people I know who are gay and love their religion...

That's just a part of being an artist: you can't write great stuff all the time, because if you did, then you'd be inhuman. The human side of people is that sometimes they fail.

Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving.

I had to learn how to function as a human being. And I really enjoyed that process.

I was sitting in the classroom trying to look intelligent in case the teacher looked at me.

I'm 27 years clean, and when you get clean, you see things in a different way. It makes your life so much more manageable.

I've only been interested in the artistic side of life.

A great editor is the most valuable thing you can have as an artist because, as you said, sometimes you get too close to something. I think, apart from your talent, that's why you have the career you have - because you have great people behind you.

Ever since I had that interview in which I said I was bisexual it seems twice as many people wave at me in the streets.

George W. Bush was passionate about AIDS. And we had a 10-minute talk at the interval of a concert at the Kennedy Center about AIDS. And I was astonished about how well-informed he was and his commitment to AIDS. And so it's the typical thing of don't judge a book by its cover until you have read the book.

You know, it's a very treatable disease. You shouldn't feel ashamed. But I'm afraid that's carried on very much so from the first days of AIDS, when it was basically a gay disease. And then, of course, you know, it affected everybody.

There is nothing wrong with going to bed with someone of your own sex. People should be very free with sex, they should draw the line at goats.

He [Ryan White] had a kind of angelic aura about him. And his family, too, it's like, they are going through all this suffering, and I'm living this "Life of Riley" and I'm complaining about everything, and they are living this horrific life and complaining about nothing.

You should never take more than you give

You can cage the songbird, but you can't make her sing. And you can trap the free bird, but you'll have to clip her wings.

I guess that's why they call it the blues, time on my hands could be time spent with you.

It seems to me, sorry seems to be the hardest word.

I’ve never had a writer’s block, but still I think: Is it going to happen this time? You never know what you’re going to get; you just put your fingers on the keys and hope.

What a scandal, if I die. Yeah, I'm gonna kill myself, get a little headline news.

Daniel is traveling tonight on a plane. I can see the red tail lights heading for Spain and I can see Daniel waving goodbye. God it looks like Daniel, must be the clouds in my eyes. They say Spain is pretty though I've never been, well Daniel says it's the best place that he's ever seen. And he should know, he's been there enough. Lord I miss Daniel, oh I miss him so much.

I am the most well-known homosexual in the world.

I was more ashamed that I couldn't work the washing machine than the fact that I was taking drugs.

I think people should be free to engage in any sexual practices they choose; they should draw the line at goats, though.

I'm glad I've given up drugs and alcohol. It would be awful to be like Keith Richards. He's pathetic. It's like a monkey with arthritis, trying to go onstage and look young.

I love places that have an incredible history. I love the Italian way of life, I love the food, I love the people, I love the attitudes of Italians.

Live for each second without hesitation

Don't you know I”m still standing better than I ever did. Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid. I'm still standing after all this time.

From the start, I've always admired Eminem's thinking. That's the reason I wanted to appear on the Grammys with him when I was asked. Eminem has the balls to say what he feels and to make offensive things funny. That's very necessary today in America, with people being muzzled and irony becoming a lost art. Artists like Eminem who use their free speech to get a point across are vitally important. There just aren't many people in the world with balls that big and talent that awesome.

I hate to say this, but I always listen to the music and the instrumentation first, and then grab on to the lyrics later.

It's so easy to write songs about misery and hard times and sadness. It's much more difficult to write songs about happy and chirpy stuff.

Children are extremely important. They are the future of the world.

Drunk all the time, feeling fine on elderberry wine.

I'm going to fight for human rights, whether I do it silently behind the scenes or vocally so that I get locked up. I can't just sit back; it's not in my nature. I can't sit back and blindly ignore it, and I won't.

Hold me closer tiny dancer, count the headlights on the highway. Lay me down in sheets of linen, you had a busy day today.

You don't know being a performer what kind of performance you're going to give. You know you can give a certain quality of performance, but as I grow older I'm much more content in my own skin because when I come offstage, I have a balance in my life.

I really appreciate my performing so much better, as I get older. I don't take it for granted anymore. I really relish it and love it.

Rocket Man, burning out his fuse up here alone.

I was just genuinely shy. I'd always been a shy kid.

The AIDS disease is caused by a virus, but the AIDS epidemic is not. The AIDS epidemic is fueled by stigma, by hate, by misinformation, by ignorance, by indifference. Science has accomplished miracles over the past 20 years, and science can now end this disease - but it cannot end the epidemic. We need more than medicine. We can do something about these things. We need to speak out about the changes we need to make in our society.

If there's a God in heaven, what's he waiting for? If He can't hear the children, then he must see the war.

At heart I've always been a music fan. That part of me has never changed since I was a little kid, sitting in a room watching a record go round, looking at the colour of the labels.

Talk to each other. Never go to bed when you're angry with each other. Lady Antonia Frasier who was married to Harold Pinter said they never went to bed on an argument.

I do like my rock stars to be a little larger than life. I don't mind the earnest ones at all, but I do like a bit of individuality.

I find that so many of my peers of my age don't listen to anything new. But I love the new. I love the energy of the new, the energy of the new act. The young are so important. The young give you the energy, and if you don't notice the young, and you don't give them credit and you don't listen to all sorts of music, then you're missing out on something.

It was Elvis that got me interested in music. I've been an Elvis fan since I was a kid.

Music has healing power. It has the ability to take people out of themselves for a few hours.

And I'm afraid, in this day and age, trust, which I count so, you know, I love loyalty. I love trust.

I had no balance in my life. I was this one person onstage and this person offstage, who really didn't know much about living.

I'm still as fascinated with the music business as ever. I'd love to do an electronic album like Prodigy or Underworld. I really like that sort of music.

Ask anyone. If it hadn't been for Elvis, I don't know where popular music would be. He was the one that started it all off, and he was definitely the start of it for me.

I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems.

Shock waves to a tired brain, sends that hungry lady to my door again. She's my shelter from the storm when I feel the rain, entertaining white powder.

I'm enjoying everything in my life, but I think the element of surprise in show business is what makes us really love it, because one day you're sitting by the phone waiting to do something or not doing anything, and the next day you've got the chance of a lifetime. Those little phone calls don't come up so often, but when they come up, it's fantastic.

My mantra is if you raise money, don't waste it.

The world is near escalating to World War Three and where are the leaders of each religion? Why aren't they having a conclave; why aren't they coming together?

I've been coming to America since 1970, and it's like my second home, but I've never felt such a divided country, ever. I didn't think it would get to this point, and it breaks my heart.

I have an optimistic view of everything. You have to, otherwise you'd go nuts.

If you write great songs with meaning and emotion, they will last for ever because songs are the key to everything.

I'm 57, I can't look like a 30-year-old. You try to hold age at bay, but there comes a point when you just have to give up gracefully.

I love the idea of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the beautiful stories about it, which I loved in Sunday school and I collected all the little stickers and put them in my book. But the reality is that organised religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate.

Love's like a junkie, addiction's a fact. Passion's a monkey, you can't keep off your back.

I have a lot of money stashed away, but I do live my life from day to day.

I've got that resilient thing inside me. But I wasn't a happy bunny.

Better to build a bridge than a wall.

For me music is so passionate. I have to give it my all every time I go onstage.

My mum always used to buy a record every Friday.

I don't have a computer. I am the Luddite of rock'n'roll, I don't have a portable phone. I write things down.

Sweet freedom whispered in my ear, you're a butterfly, and butterflies are free to fly, fly away, high-away, bye-bye.

So excuse me forgetting, but these things I do You see I've forgotten, if they're green or they're blue Anyway, the thing is, what I really mean Yours are the sweetest eyes, I've ever seen.

There's a time for everyone, If they only learn, that the twisting kaleidoscope moves us all in turn.

Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids, in fact it's cold as hell.

This is a tremendous assest for the club, a tremendous headache lifted from our shoulders, really.

I didn't sleep with anyone till I was 23.

I love every minute of fatherhood, staying up all night, changing nappies, kids crying, I find it really funny and inspiring. It connects you to the world in a new way.

You can beat her, but don't mistreat her. Oh, don't believe that woman please.

I hope you don't mind, I hope you don't mind, that I put into words, how wonderful life is, now you're in the world.

It's very important to have two tiaras when you're on the road. You never know when you'll be invited to something really formal.

Rock and roll came in and changed my life and changed the whole music scene forever, and then I grew to love R&B and Motown and all black music, gospel music. But I never dismiss any form of music. I listen to everything.

Don't judge the picture by the frame, every man is not the same

I've always wanted to smash a guitar over someone's head. You just can't do that with a piano.

Take me to the pilot of your soul.

I'm a juvenile product of the working class, who's best friend floats in the bottom of a glass.

I just wish more of my fellow queers would come out sometimes. It's nice out here, you know?

It's the circle of life, and it moves us all, through despair and hope, through faith and love, 'till we find our place, on the path unwinding.

Until I can visualise what the lyrics are about and see the story or whatever, I can't hear the melody.

How wonderful life is while you're in the world

Unless you show off you're not going to get noticed.

Don't be afraid to let her into your heart and when your down, don't try to carry the whole world on your shoulders.

Love is the key we must turn, truth is the flame we must burn.

The great thing about rock and roll is that someone like me can be a star.

How dare you refer to my beautiful children as 'synthetic'. And shame on you for wagging your judgemental little fingers at IVF - a miracle that has allowed legions of loving people, both straight and gay, to fulfill their dream of having children, your archaic thinking is out of step with the times, just like your fashions. I shall never wear Dolce and Gabbana ever again.

The worst thing you can do to a child, and I've seen it happen so many times, is the silver spoon.