Tom Petty Quotes

I didn’t think you could just become a rock and roll singer.

It’s funny how the music industry is enraged about the Internet and the way things are copied without being paid for. But you know why people steal the music? Because they can’t afford the music.

There’s nothing like that feeling of having just written a song that you know is ‘the song,’ and you know it’s really great, and you can’t wait to share it with people; you can’t wait to record it.

Buy me a drink, sing me a song; take me as I come, cause I can’t stay long.

There used to be this real sense of community integrity in rock. It has really eroded. Everyone seems to be on their own now.

Where the sky begins, the horizon ends, despite the best intentions.

Redemption comes to those who wait, forgiveness is the key.

I tend to write on an acoustic guitar or the piano. I have kind of a rule: if I can’t sit down and play this and get the song over, I don’t take it to the band, because most any good song, you can sit down and deliver it with a piano or a guitar.

It’s hard for me… If I don’t have a project going, I don’t feel like I’m connected to anything. I don’t even think it’s that healthy for me. I like to get out of bed and have a purpose.

I think watching the TV news is bad for you. It is bad for your physical health and your mental health.

I would never put my songs in a commercial.

When my record company rejected ‘Full Moon Fever’, I was hurt so bad. I was pretty far along in my career at that point. I’d never had anything rejected; I’d never really even had a comment. So when that happened, it was really just a board to the forehead. But then, finally, I picked myself up.

I’m not exactly a guy who makes new friends easily.

A good song should give you a lot of images; you should be able to make your own little movie in your head to a good song.

When you get older, your health becomes important to you, things start breaking down, you’ve always got a different ache or pain.

Music is probably the only real magic I have encountered in my life. There’s not some trick involved with it. It’s pure and it’s real. It moves, it heals, it communicates and does all these incredible things.

What I’ve learned about marriage: You need to have each other’s back; you have to be a kind of team going through life.