Lou always says it best. Take it, Lou.
"Gimme an issue, I'll give you a tissue. You can wipe my ass with it."
"We were pretty bad, and we had to change our name a lot. We played fraternities. People would vomit on your amp."
"Dylan was never around for me. But he did have a nice flair for words that didn't mean anything. They were just marijuana throwaways."
"I enjoyed those shows I did in London at the Rainbow, but I kept thinking that Frank Zappa fell seventeen feet down into that pit. I hate Frank Zappa, and it made me so happy to think about that."
"Musicians usually cannot speak. That's why they communicate through their instruments. But Frank was one who could. And because music is pure, the musician is pure as well and when Frank spoke he demonstrated the power of purity. Who will do that now? I admired Frank greatly and I know he admired me."
"Everyone should have a divorce once, I can recommend it."
"This is fantastic - the worse I am, the more it sells. If I wasn't on the record at all next time around, it would probably go number one."
"Show me a journalist who isn't a whore and I'll show you a man."
"I created Lou Reed. I have nothing even faintly in common with that guy, but I can play him well. Really well."
"This waiter came up to me in a restaurant and said, 'Listen, I write songs, what do you suggest I do?' I said, '"Let me hear them so I can steal them off you if there's anything good.'"
"My current designation as godfather of punk is shit, ridiculous. I'm too literate to be into punk rock."
"A punk is a misplaced hippie."
"Nixon was beautiful. If he had bombed Montana and gotten away with it, I would have loved him."
"I don't smoke grass and I don't like things that everyone sniffs off a table. That's tawdry, it's so common. I like to play with my system, alone. I'm into drug masturbation."
"The nice thing about New York is that you're anonymous. I mean, who wants to be known?"
"I like my trash to sound better than anybody else's trash, because I make records to sell records."
"I wanna be black, I wanna be like Malcolm X and cast a hex over President Kennedy's tomb. And have a big prick, too."
"Not everybody gets the chance to live out their nightmares for the vicarious pleasures of the public."
"I believe in all things in moderation...including moderation."
"I really love the farm, it smells great."
"I don't write for a rock 'n' roll audience. I write for adults...who listen to rock 'n' roll."
"It's very hard to keep it simple."
"Who else could make a scooter hip?"
"I've had reviews that say, 'Why don't you just die?' and it hasn't seemed to make any difference."
"I can't do anything outside of New York. It's death."
"Fuck Radio Ethiopia, man, I'm Radio Brooklyn!"
"Nothing beats two guitars, drum and bass."
