Nick Cave Quotes

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Nick Cave

Profession : Musician

Birth : September 22, 1957

I'm a believer. I don't go to church. I don't belong to any particular religion, but I do believe in God. I couldn't write what I write about and be creative without a certain form of belief.

Nick Cave

The work ethic at art school is completely different than the work ethic amongst people who get into music. People who paint, it's an honorable thing to spend all day and all night in front of your canvas - that is the romantic vision of the painter.

Nick Cave

I love being manipulated by what I see. I love weepies and romantic comedies where you're reaching for the Kleenex at the right moment.

Nick Cave

Moving to the country is a very bold thing to do. You can have vague romantic notions about doing that, but in actuality, it can be a terrifying thing.

Nick Cave

Getting married, for me, was the best thing I ever did. I was suddenly beset with an immense sense of release, that we have something more important than our separate selves, and that is the marriage. There's immense happiness that can come from working towards that.

Nick Cave

My father was a teacher and my mother also worked in the school, so the family has a background in education.

Nick Cave

My music has to do with beauty, and it's intended to, if not lift the spirits, then be a kind of a balm to the spirits.

Nick Cave

I've spent my life butting my head against other people's lack of imagination.

Nick Cave

I don't have any authority to talk about the domestic policies of America. But as an outsider, I am mystified by the fact that you are encouraged to buy a gun, but if you use it for the purpose that it is expressly designed for, you get the death penalty. That aspect of America is kind of mystifying.

Nick Cave

I suspect the older you get the more invisible you become.

Nick Cave

Film seems to be a medium designed for betrayal and violence.

Nick Cave

I am not interested in anything that doesn't have a genuine heart to it. You've got to have soul in the hole. If that isn't there, I don't see the point.

Nick Cave

An artist's duty is rather to stay open-minded and in a state where he can receive information and inspiration. You always have to be ready for that little artistic Epiphany.

Nick Cave

Most people wait for the muse to turn up. That's terribly unreliable. I have to sit down and pursue the muse by attempting to work.

Nick Cave

There's always pain around. That's one thing you can guarantee in life - there will always be a surplus of pain.

Nick Cave

If you look around, complacency is the great disease of your autumn years, and I work hard to prevent that.

Nick Cave

I lost my innocence with Johnny Cash. I used to watch the 'Johnny Cash Show' on television in Wangaratta when I was about 9 or 10 years old. At that stage I had really no idea about rock n' roll. I watched him, and from that point I saw that music could be an evil thing - a beautiful, evil thing.

Nick Cave

I'm not religious, and I'm not a Christian, but I do reserve the right to believe in the possibility of a god.

Nick Cave

The big problem with songwriting for me is starting a new song. It's the thing where all the anguish exists, not in the writing of the song, but the starting of the new song.

Nick Cave

The idea of songwriting is a transformative thing, and what I do with songwriting is take situations that are quite ordinary and transform them in some way. Apart from things like the murder ballads, the songs I write, at their core, are quite ordinary human concerns, but the process of writing about them transforms them into something else.

Nick Cave