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" 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

Work

Music

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" Fame itself... doesn't really afford you anything more than a good seat in a restaurant. "

" Strangely, some songs you really don't want to write. "

" 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

Early

Coffee

" My son's full real name is Duncan Zowie Haywood. As a toddler, he was called by his second name Zowie. But it was such an identifiable name during the Seventies that if I called him loudly in public places, everyone would turn to stare, so I started calling him Joey to take the pressure off. "

" 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. "

" The name Zahra was to have been lman's own name at birth, but a senior member of the family changed it to lman at the last minute. "

" 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

Feel

Music

" 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

I Am

Left

" 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. "

" I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human. "

David Bowie

Need

Something

" 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. "

" To not be modest about it, you'll find that with only a couple of exceptions, most of the musicians that I've worked with have done their best work by far with me. "

" 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

Situation

Sometimes

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" But I'm pretty good with collaborative thinking. I work well with other people. "

" That's the shock: All cliches are true. The years really do speed by. Life really is as short as they tell you it is. And there really is a God - so do I buy that one? If all the other cliches are true... Hell, don't pose me that one. "

David Bowie

Hell

Short

" I do value the respect I get from my contemporaries, but to have Oasis cover my song, to have Puff Daddy cover a song, to have Goldie come along to my gigs - that's where my ego is at. To have my fellow musicians like what I do, that's very cool. "

David Bowie

Cool

Value

" 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

Down

Street

" From my standpoint, being an artist, I want to see what the new construction is between artist and audience. "

" Since the departure of good old-fashioned entertainers the re-emergence of somebody who wants to be an entertainer has unfortunately become a synonym for camp. I don't think I'm camper than any other person who felt at home on stage, and felt more at home on stage than he did offstage. "

" I wanted to imbue Ziggy with real flesh and blood and muscle, and it was imperative that I find Ziggy and be him. "

" I've always tended to write songs prolifically. "

" My father worked for a children's home called Dr. Barnardo's Homes. They're a charity. "

David Bowie

Charity

Children

" 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. "

" 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

I Am

Makeup

" Songs don't have to be about going out on Saturday night and having a good rink-up and driving home and crashing cars. A lot of what I've done is about alienation... about where you fit in society. "

" 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

Work

Feel

" When I heard Little Richard, I mean, it just set my world on fire. "