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" I did play a lot of fingerstyle when I first started playing. I could never really find the right combination of flatpick or fingerpick, so playing fingerstyle is really the easiest way - though it's quite strenuous on the fingertips. "

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" My original interests and intentions in guitar playing were primarily created on quality of tone, for instance, the way the instrument could be made to echo or simulate the human voice. "

Eric Clapton

Human

Voice

Tone

" I just managed to convince my grandmother that it was a worth while that was something to do, you know, and when I did finally get the guitar, it didn't seem that difficult to me, to be able to make a good noise out of it. "

" I feel a real need to observe a level of propriety in what I'm handing out. Instead of me just venting or spilling my guts, I've got to consider how it's going to affect people. How it's going to affect me, as well. Because it's like a cycle. "

Eric Clapton

People

Need

" The toughest thing about being a celebrity, I suppose, is being polite when I don't want to be. "

" To sing in a lower key is harder work. You have to use your diaphragm more. "

" But the guitar, when you think about it, is the most versatile, really. I mean you can pick it up and take it with you wherever you go. "

Eric Clapton

Mean

Guitar

" From the beginning, I knew intuitively that if nothing else, music was safe, and that nobody could tell me anything about it. Music didn't need a middleman, whereas all the other things in school needed some kind of explanation. "

Eric Clapton

Kind

Music

" In playing, I suppose my greatest gift was to express the way I felt or the willingness to express myself. "

" Although they can do it all the time, you know, they're far better than me, on a musically, on a theoretical music level. You know, they're out of my league. "

" I used to do crazy things that people would bail me out of, and I'm just grateful that I survived. But the music got very lost; I didn't know where I was going, and I didn't really care. I was more into just having a good time, and I think it showed. "

Eric Clapton

Good

Grateful

" But I did go to music really early on, even when I was 4 or 5, I was responding to music probably in ways other kids were not. "

" A British pressing with a compilation of the best stuff really, I mean actually not only that but, these were all kind of semi hits for the people on it in America. "

" Music became a healer for me. "

" I think I deliberately sold out a couple of times. I picked the songs that I thought would do well in the marketplace, even though I didn't really love the song. "

" I don't have half the nerves there that I have anywhere else. "

" The first guitar I ever had was a gut-string Spanish guitar, and I couldn't really get the hang of it. I was only 13, and I talked my grandparents into buying it for me. I tried and tried and tried, but got nowhere with it. "

" An obsession is where something will not leave your mind. "

" My dedication to my music has driven everyone away. I've had girlfriends, but I always end up on my own. I don't particularly like it, but I don't see a way 'round it. "

" There's a desire in me to express something - to match what I hear in my head. "

Eric Clapton

Hear

Match

" It's very dependent on your state of mind. And your emotional state as well. And a lot of it comes pouring out, you don't really have that much control with it. "

" When you're onstage with an electric band going through a massive P.A. system, it's very artificial. You can't really hear your own voice as it comes out of your mouth. "

" I listened to King Oliver and I listened to Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Archie Shepp... I listened to everything I could that came from that place that they call the blues but, in formality, isn't necessarily the blues. "

" I like solitude. I like the anomalous life. I like a quiet life. "

" Well, I think part of my gift, or if I have one, is that I love listening. "

" Very much like that, and very much a loner, do you know and I didn't fit really into sport or all kind of group activities as a kid, I couldn't find a niche. And music was not really part of the kind of village curriculum it would, you know. "

" I mean, the sound of an amplified guitar in a room full of people was so hypnotic and addictive to me, that I could cross any kind of border to get on there. "

Eric Clapton

Mean

People

" They looked great, you know the drawings of the guys playing looked great and bits of string around their necks. So it didn't seem to be that difficult a thing to do, or that inaccessible. "

" I often enjoy singing in an acoustic setting more than an amplified one. "

Eric Clapton

Acoustic

Enjoy

" The first band I identified with from Chicago was the Muddy Waters band. "

" When all the original blues guys are gone, you start to realize that someone has to tend to the tradition. I recognize that I have some responsibility to keep the music alive, and it's a pretty honorable position to be in. "