Welcome to our collection of David Bowie quotes, where we celebrate the wisdom, wit, and creativity of one of the most iconic figures in music history. David Bowie, born David Robert Jones, transcended the boundaries of music, art, and fashion, leaving an indelible mark on popular culture. Throughout his illustrious career, Bowie captivated audiences with his unparalleled talent for reinvention, his magnetic stage presence, and his thought-provoking lyrics.
As a pioneering force in the realm of music, Bowie’s influence extends far beyond the confines of his genre. His eclectic blend of rock, pop, glam, and avant-garde experimentation challenged conventions and inspired countless artists across generations. From his early days as Ziggy Stardust to his later personas like the Thin White Duke, Bowie fearlessly explored themes of identity, fame, and alienation, inviting listeners to embark on a journey of self-discovery through his music and words. Join us as we delve into the profound insights and memorable utterances of this legendary artist, whose legacy continues to resonate with audiences worldwide. Discover the essence of Bowie’s brilliance through the quotes curated below.
The humanists’ replacement for religion: work really hard and somehow you’ll either save yourself or you’ll be immortal. Of course, that’s a total joke, and our progress is nothing. There may be progress in technology but there’s no ethical progress whatsoever. David Bowie
I felt I really wanted to back off from music completely and just work within the visual arts in some way. I started painting quite passionately at that time. David Bowie
When I’m stuck for a closing to a lyric, I will drag out my last resort: overwhelming illogic. David Bowie
I could imagine at a certain age, when I have no vocal cords left, that I would find a young man who could sing my parts for me. But I don’t see why I would stop. David Bowie
I’m just an individual who doesn’t feel that I need to have somebody qualify my work in any particular way. I’m working for me. David Bowie
I realized the other day that I’ve lived in New York longer than I’ve lived anywhere else. It’s amazing: I am a New Yorker. It’s strange; I never thought I would be. David Bowie
I’m an early riser. I get up between five and six, have coffee, and read for a couple of hours before everyone else gets up. David Bowie
Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity. So it’s like, just take advantage of these last few years because none of this is ever going to happen again. You’d better be prepared for doing a lot of touring because that’s really the only unique situation that’s going to be left. David Bowie
All my big mistakes are when I try to second-guess or please an audience. My work is always stronger when I get very selfish about it. David Bowie
I was never particularly fond of my voice. David Bowie
I have all the admiration in the world for somebody like Bono, who really puts himself on the line and tries actively to do something about our world situation. David Bowie
I think Mick Jagger would be astounded and amazed if he realized that to many people he is not a sex symbol, but a mother image. David Bowie
As you get older, the questions come down to about two or three. How long? And what do I do with the time I’ve got left? David Bowie
My father worked for a children’s home called Dr. Barnardo’s Homes. They’re a charity. David Bowie
As an adolescent, I was painfully shy, withdrawn. I didn’t really have the nerve to sing my songs on stage, and nobody else was doing them. I decided to do them in disguise so that I didn’t have to actually go through the humiliation of going on stage and being myself. David Bowie
I do some kind of work, whether writing or painting or recording, on a daily basis. And it’s so essential that when I’m involved in the actual process, my so-called ‘real life’ becomes almost incidental, which becomes worrying. David Bowie
I’m not a prophet or a stone aged man, just a mortal with potential of a superman. I’m living on. David Bowie
I would drive to gigs in my tiny little Fiat. I would shoot up and down the M1 to play at various places. David Bowie
There are times when I prefer a cerebral moment with an artist, and I’ll just enjoy the wit of a Picabia or a Duchamp. It amuses me that they thought that what they did would be a good way of making art. David Bowie
All Montreal bands have around nine members, I believe. David Bowie
Confront a corpse at least once. The absolute absence of life is the most disturbing and challenging confrontation you will ever have. David Bowie
A song has to take on character, shape, body and influence people to an extent that they use it for their own devices. It must affect them not just as a song, but as a lifestyle. David Bowie
I had to resign myself, many years ago, that I’m not too articulate when it comes to explaining how I feel about things. But my music does it for me, it really does. David Bowie
But I’m pretty good with collaborative thinking. I work well with other people. David Bowie
I’ve always tended to write songs prolifically. David Bowie
I’m in awe of the universe, but I don’t necessarily believe there’s an intelligence or agent behind it. I do have a passion for the visual in religious rituals, though, even though they may be completely empty and bereft of substance. David Bowie
I went through all the musicians in my life who I admire as bright, intelligent, virtuosic players. David Bowie
I’m an instant star. Just add water and stir. David Bowie
It’s amazing: I am a New Yorker. It’s strange; I never thought I would be. David Bowie
I’m looking for backing for an unauthorized auto-biography that I am writing. Hopefully, this will sell in such huge numbers that I will be able to sue myself for an extraordinary amount of money and finance the film version in which I will play everybody. David Bowie
With a suit, always wear big British shoes, the ones with large welts. There’s nothing worse than dainty little Italian jobs at the end of the leg line. David Bowie
Heathenism is a state of mind. You can take it that I’m referring to one who does not see his world. He has no mental light. He destroys almost unwittingly. He cannot feel any Gods presence in his life. He is the 21st century man. David Bowie
I’m responsible for starting a whole new school of pretension. David Bowie
You get to a certain age, and you are forbidden access. You’re not going to get the kind of coverage that you would like in music magazines; you’re not going to get played on radio, and you’re not going to get played on television. I have to survive on word of mouth. David Bowie
For me, often, there’s such a cloud of melancholia about knowing I’m going to have to leave my daughter on her own. I don’t know what age that is going to be, thank God. It just doubles me up in grief. David Bowie
Radio in England is nonexistent. It’s very bad English use of a media system, typically English use. David Bowie
Sometimes you stumble across a few chords that put you in a reflective place. David Bowie
I don’t have a problem with ageing – in fact, I embrace that aspect of it. And am able to and obviously am going to be able to quite easily… it doesn’t faze me at all. David Bowie
It amazes me sometimes that even intelligent people will analyze a situation or make a judgement after only recognizing the standard or traditional structure of a piece. David Bowie
I’m in awe of the universe, but I don’t necessarily believe there’s an intelligence or agent behind it. I do have a passion for the visual in religious rituals, though, even though they may be completely empty and bereft of substance. The incense is powerful and provocative, whether Buddhist or Catholic. David Bowie
Nearly all the synth work on Heathen is mine and some of the piano. David Bowie
Fame itself… doesn’t really afford you anything more than a good seat in a restaurant. David Bowie
If I had a talent, it was for looking askew at everything, possibly more than my contemporaries. But I had to really push myself to be a writer. David Bowie
I think Mustique is Duchampian – it will always provide an endless source of delight. David Bowie
I wanted to prove the sustaining power of music. David Bowie
Being shoved into the top-40 scene was an unusual experience. It was great I’d become accessible to a huge audience but not terribly fulfilling. David Bowie
GYBE are among my, erm, two favourite Montreal bands, Arcade Fire being the other. David Bowie
I’ve never responded well to entrenched negative thinking. David Bowie
Being a hybrid maker off and on over the years, I’m very comfortable with the idea and have been the subject of quite a few pretty good mash-ups myself. David Bowie
When you think about it, Adolf Hitler was the first pop star. David Bowie
Anxiety and spiritual searching have been consistent themes with me, and that figures into my worldview. But I tend to make my songs sound like relationship songs. David Bowie
Searching for music is like searching for God. They’re very similar. There’s an effort to reclaim the unmentionable, the unsayable, the unseeable, the unspeakable, all those things, comes into being a composer and to writing music and to searching for notes and pieces of musical information that don’t exist. David Bowie
The Internet carries the flag of being subversive and possibly rebellious and chaotic, nihilistic. David Bowie
I’ve always regretted that I never was able to talk openly with my parents, especially with my father. I’ve heard and read so many things about my family that I can no longer believe anything; every relative I question has a completely different story from the last. David Bowie
I rate Morrissey as one of the best lyricists in Britain. For me, he’s up there with Bryan Ferry. David Bowie
I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human. David Bowie
Even though I was very shy, I found I could get onstage if I had a new identity. David Bowie
I’m very good at what I do, and I don’t turn my hand to something unless I’m very good at it, frankly. David Bowie
From my standpoint, being an artist, I want to see what the new construction is between artist and audience. David Bowie
All art really does is keep you focused on questions of humanity, and it really is about how do we get on with our maker. David Bowie
I’m very at ease, and I like it. I never thought I would be such a family-oriented guy; I didn’t think that was part of my makeup. But somebody said that as you get older you become the person you always should have been, and I feel that’s happening to me. I’m rather surprised at who I am, because I’m actually like my dad! David Bowie
The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I see absolutely no point in pretending that it’s not going to happen. I’m fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in 10 years. David Bowie
An armchair Jungian would say the whole thing is about my own ongoing spiritual search. My interior life has always been one of trying to find a spiritual link, maybe because I’m from a family of separate religious philosophies: Protestant and Catholic. David Bowie
Art was, seriously, the only thing I’d ever wanted to own. It has always been for me a stable nourishment. I use it. It can change the way that I feel in the mornings. David Bowie
I suppose for me as an artist it wasn’t always just about expressing my work; I really wanted, more than anything else, to contribute in some way to the culture that I was living in. It just seemed like a challenge to move it a little bit towards the way I thought it might be interesting to go. David Bowie
I’m well past the age where I’m acceptable. You get to a certain age and you are forbidden access. You’re not going to get the kind of coverage that you would like in music magazines, you’re not going to get played on radio and you’re not going to get played on television. I have to survive on word of mouth. David Bowie
I still derive immense pleasure from remembering how many hod-carrying brickies were encouraged to put on lurex tights and mince up and down the high street, having been assured by know-it-alls like me that a smidgen of blusher really attracted the birds. David Bowie
There, in the chords and melodies, is everything I want to say. The words just jolly it along. It’s always been my way of expressing what, for me, is inexpressible by any other means. David Bowie
I’ve started doing book reviews for Barnes & Noble! They saw that I did a lot of book reviews on the site, and they figured that it might not be a bad thing if they got me to do some for them as well. I gave them five categories I’d be interested in reviewing, from art to fiction to music. David Bowie
I’m not actually a very keen performer. I like putting shows together. I like putting events together. In fact, everything I do is about the conceptualizing and realization of a piece of work, whether it’s the recording or the performance side. David Bowie
I don’t see any boundaries between any of the art forms. I think they all inter-relate completely. David Bowie
I’m always amazed that people take what I say seriously. I don’t even take what I am seriously. David Bowie
I guess it’s flattering that everyone believed I was those characters, but it also is dehumanizing. David Bowie
I change my mind a lot. I usually don’t agree with what I say very much. I’m an awful liar. David Bowie
I’m not very articulate. David Bowie
Funk, I don’t think I have anything to do with funk. I’ve never considered myself funky. David Bowie
My mother was Catholic, my father was Protestant. There was always a debate going on at home – I think in those days we called them arguments – about who was right and who was wrong. David Bowie
You would think that a rock star being married to a supermodel would be one of the greatest things in the world. It is. David Bowie
I guess, taking away all the theatrics or the costuming and the outer layers of what I do, I’m a writer… I write. David Bowie
I think it all comes back to being very selfish as an artist. I mean, I really do just write and record what interests me and I do approach the stage shows in much the same way. David Bowie
I was born in London 1947, after the war. A real wartime baby. I went to school in Brixton, and then I moved up to Yorkshire, which is in the north of England. I lived on the farms up there. David Bowie
What I have is a malevolent curiosity. That’s what drives my need to write and what probably leads me to look at things a little askew. I do tend to take a different perspective from most people. David Bowie
I’ve made over 25 studio albums, and I think probably I’ve made two real stinkers in my time, and some not-bad albums, and some really good albums. I’m proud of what I’ve done. In fact it’s been a good ride. David Bowie
Glam really did plant seeds for a new identity. I think a lot of kids needed that – that sense of reinvention. Kids learned that however crazy you may think it is, there is a place for what you want to do and who you want to be. David Bowie
I wanted to imbue Ziggy with real flesh and blood and muscle, and it was imperative that I find Ziggy and be him. David Bowie
There’s an effort to reclaim the unmentionable, the unsayable, the unspeakable, all those things come into being a composer, into writing music, into searching for notes and pieces of musical information that don’t exist. David Bowie
I would dream. I focused all my attention on going to America. The subculture, James Dean, the rock n’ roll, the beat writers. David Bowie
I don’t crave applause. I’m not one of those guys who comes alive on stage. I’m much more alive at home, I think. David Bowie
I knew that I was ‘interesting’ at 18 because I was aware that I could get away with doing things on stage. David Bowie
There’s a schizoid streak within the family anyway so I dare say that I’m affected by that. The majority of the people in my family have been in some kind of mental institution, as for my brother he doesn’t want to leave. He likes it very much. David Bowie
Frankly, if I could get away with not having to perform, I’d be very happy. It’s not my favorite thing to do. David Bowie
The truest form of any form of revolutionary Left, whatever you want to call it, was Jack Kerouac, E.E. Cummings, & Ginsberg’s period. Excuse me, but that’s where it was at. David Bowie
Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming. David Bowie
Fame can take interesting men and thrust mediocrity upon them. David Bowie
Pixies and Sonic Youth were so important to the eighties. David Bowie
Everything I read about hitting a midlife crisis was true. I had such a struggle letting go of youthful things and learning how to exist and have enthusiasm while settling into the comfort of an older age. David Bowie
I’m not one of those guys that has a great worldview. I kind of deal with terror and fear and isolation and abandonment. David Bowie
Now I realize that from ’72 through to about ’76, I was the ultimate rock star. I couldn’t have been more rock star. David Bowie
I’ll tell you who I absolutely adore: Ian McEwan. David Bowie
Age doesn’t bother me. So many of my heroes were older guys. It’s the lack of years left that weighs far heavier on me than the age that I am. David Bowie