A biography for Paul Simonhasn’t been written yet.
“The thought that life could be better is woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains.”
“The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenements halls and whispered in the sounds of silence.”
“Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die.”
“We've survived by believing our life is going to get better.”
“I think Bridge Over Troubled Water was a very good song. Artie sang it beautifully. The Boxer was a really nice record. But I don't think I've written any great songs.”
“I rate each album as better than the last one. That's how I see it.”
“There's something about the sound of a train that's very romantic and nostalgic and hopeful.”
“There must be 50 ways to leave your lover.”
“Why am I so soft in the middle when the rest of my life is so hard?”
“I suppose an artist takes the elements of his life and rearranges them and then has them perceived by others as though they were the elements of their lives.”
“You want to be a writer, don't know how or when? Find a quiet place, use a humble pen.”
“If you can get humor and seriousness at the same time, you've created a special little thing, and that's what I'm looking for, because if you get pompous, you lose everything.”
“A man sees what he wants to see, And disregards the rest.”
“I'm more interested in what I discover than what I invent.”
“I don't like fashion. It's very heartless.”
“Who am I to blow against the wind?”
“We got on American Bandstand, where kids would dance to a record and then rate it. We called ourselves Tom and Jerry. I was Jerry.”
“I don't believe what the papers are saying They're just out to capture my dime, Exaggerating this, exaggerating that.”
“When we came into the studio I became more and more me, making the tracks and choosing the musicians, partly because a great deal of the time during Bridge, Artie wasn't there.”
“We had many more points of agreement than we had points of difference, but we did differ, and the bigger we got, the more insistent we got that each one of us should have his way.”