Neil Peart

“I think, in music, you're always hoping that you'll have a like-minded audience and that the music you like making will appeal to them, too.”

“I don't like lyrics that are just thrown together, that were obviously written as you went along, or the song was already written and the guy made up the lyrics in five minutes.”

“Too much attention and hoopla doesn't agree with my temperament.”

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

“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.”

“People don't realize the limitations of 200 words, and the way they get chiselled down into a song that has to be sung.”

“It astonished me in the early Nineties to suddenly have musicians admit that they had been inspired and influenced by us. That meant a lot at that time. But of course, being human, the... disrespect isn't even strong enough a word, is it? The opprobrium was painful. Being popular and hated is not satisfying.”

“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.”

“I expect if you're a professional public speaker, you probably wouldn't want to go onstage and sing and play drums.”

“I try not to repeat myself in fills in all the Rush songs unless it is something simple or something I feel is my own characteristic thing.”

“If it's cross-country ski season, I'll be out doing that, or snowshoeing up in Quebec. In my California home, I go to the local Y and I like doing yoga. It's been hugely beneficial to me in injury avoidance.”

“Extroverts never understand introverts, and it was like that in school days. I read recently that all of us can be defined in adult life by the way others perceived us in high school.”

“Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to play music that I liked, and even when I was in cover bands when I was a teenager we only played cover tunes that we liked. That was the simple morality that I grew up with.”

“When I was young, my ambitions were very modest. I thought, 'If only I could play at the battle of the bands at the Y, that would be the culmination of existence!' And then the roller rink, and you work your way up branch by branch.”

“If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”

“Pure libertarianism believes that people will be generous and help each other. Well, they won't. I wish it were so, and I live that way. I help panhandlers, but other people are, 'Oh look at that - why doesn't he get a job?' While I believe in all that freedom, I also believe that no one should suffer needlessly.”

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

“The Seven Cities of Gold always fascinated me. Southwestern U.S. history especially fascinates me. The whole spur of the Spanish exploration of the Southwestern U.S. was the search for these mythical Seven Cities of Gold.”

“Live shows were always religion for us. We never played a show - whether it was in front of 15 people or 15,000 - where it wasn't everything we had that night.”

“If I go play golf with the guys, it's intended to be a joke.”