Neil Peart Quotes

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Neil Peart

Profession : Musician

Birth : September 12, 1952

I believe in taxation and health care that is outside the usual libertarian mandate, because I don't want people to have to suffer. It's as simple as that.

Neil Peart

What is a master but a master student? And if that's true, then there's a responsibility on you to keep getting better and to explore avenues of your profession.

Neil Peart

I'm learning all the time. I'm evolving all the time as a human being. I'm getting better, I hope, in all of the important ways.

Neil Peart

The reality is that my style of drumming is largely an athletic undertaking, and it does not pain me to realize that, like all athletes, there comes a time to... take yourself out of the game.

Neil Peart

The real test of a musician is live performance. It's one thing to spend a long time learning how to play well in the studio, but to do it in front of people is what keeps me coming back to touring.

Neil Peart

Even as a kid, I never wanted to be famous; I wanted to be good.

Neil Peart

If I have to travel, I'm going to travel my way and travel in the real world. And I'm going to have conversations every day with people in rest stops and people in gas stations and people in hotels and diners. That nourishes me.

Neil Peart

Do yourself a favor. Don't ever say to me, 'Everything happens for a reason.'

Neil Peart

The thing for me about Ayn Rand is that her philosophy is the only one applicable to the world today - in every sense. If you take her ideas, then take them farther in your own mind, you can find answers to pretty well everything on an individual basis.

Neil Peart

You have to know when you're at the top of your particular mountain, I guess. Maybe not the summit, but as high as you can go.

Neil Peart

Playing a three-hour Rush show is like running a marathon while solving equations.

Neil Peart

If drummers are 'anti-solo,' that's up to them. They're musicians, and they can play whatever they want. But my inspirations early on were people like Buddy Rich, seeing him on 'The Tonight Show', or Gene Krupa.

Neil Peart

I always thought if I could just put something in words perfectly enough, people would get the idea, and it would change things. That's a harmless conceit. With people, too, you constantly think, 'If I'm nice to people and treat them well, they'll appreciate it and behave better.' They won't, but it's still not a bad way to live.

Neil Peart

The government's only functions are to protect the rights of the individual; therefore, you need a police force and an army.

Neil Peart

If you've got a problem, take it out on a drum.

Neil Peart

I've heard the stories. Like, Eric Clapton said he wanted to burn his guitar when he heard Jimi Hendrix play. I never understood that because, when I went and saw a great drummer or heard one, all I wanted to do was practice.

Neil Peart

Once, I went speeding past an old couple and smiled as I imagined their conversation: him grumbling about me and her telling him not to be such an old grouch. Then, suddenly I was in tears, thinking, 'I'll never get to be a grumpy old grandpa!'

Neil Peart

I'd be very honored to be the ambassador to drum solos.

Neil Peart

In 2007, I studied with Peter Erskine because I was doing a Buddy Rich tribute concert, and I wanted to take my big-band drumming up a level. I went over to Peter's house with my sticks, feeling like a 13-year-old again.

Neil Peart

It's interesting. I've known quite a few good athletes that can't begin to play a beat on the drum set. Most team sport is about the smooth fluidity of hand-eye coordination and physical grace, where drumming is much more about splitting all those things up.

Neil Peart