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" I tend to write on an acoustic guitar or the piano. I have kind of a rule: if I can't sit down and play this and get the song over, I don't take it to the band, because most any good song, you can sit down and deliver it with a piano or a guitar. "

Tom Petty

Good

You

Guitar

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" Go after what you really love and find a way to make that work for you, and then you'll be a happy person. "

" I'm not exactly a guy who makes new friends easily. "

" I love history, doesn't matter what era, I'm fascinated. "

" I have turned down a lot of money for things that would have made me feel cheesy. "

Tom Petty

Money

Down

" There used to be this real sense of community integrity in rock. It has really eroded. Everyone seems to be on their own now. "

" I've never had any idea that what I like would resonate with the audience, and I'm pleasantly surprised when it does. "

Tom Petty

Audience

Idea

" I didn't think you could just become a rock and roll singer. "

" What I've learned about marriage: You need to have each other's back; you have to be a kind of team going through life. "

" Rock n' roll was one thing, and then they chopped off the 'roll' and called it 'rock,' which became a sort of umbrella term for anything with a guitar in it. Like hair bands. How could we possibly believe that? It's just gotten downright silly, to the point where now it's sort of become like professional wrestling. "

" Making a record? You've got to have the song, then you create a record. I think it's the same with a live performance. If the material is strong, you're already 90% there. I always tell young people it's all about the music, the songs. Work on the songs, work on the songs, work on the songs. "

" When my record company rejected 'Full Moon Fever', I was hurt so bad. I was pretty far along in my career at that point. I'd never had anything rejected; I'd never really even had a comment. So when that happened, it was really just a board to the forehead. But then, finally, I picked myself up. "

" I think television's become a downright dangerous thing. It has no moral barometer whatsoever. If you want to talk about something that is all about money, just watch the television. "

" I've been more and more into production lately, and I really, really love that. I love recording. "

Tom Petty

Been

Love

" The energy of the crowd is insane. Twenty thousand people. It's the biggest jolt of adrenaline. It's very hard to explain. You know the old story about the woman lifting the car off her kid? It's in that realm. You can actually hurt yourself and not know it. "

" I don't treat the band like I'm above them or that they're a hired hand for me. We've never worked that way. So I'm a team player. I would be very uncomfortable having to do this alone. "

" When you get on the back side of your 60s, most people aren't working. "

" I don't know, my music has always just come from where the wind blew me. Like where I'm at during a particular moment in time. "

Tom Petty

Moment

Know

" I think that if people realize that with an mp3, you're only getting five percent of the sound that's there. But when you hear the entire thing... I think it would save the music business. It's such a drastic change. "

" My hours get kinda backwards. Most of the time, we're basing out of one town, flying out, doing the show, then flying back. And it's a pace that no one would believe, really. Unless you've done it, you really can't understand what it is. And if you're not really experienced and know how to do it, you will fall. "

" I like to be an optimist, but I like to be a realist, too. "

Tom Petty

Too

Optimist

" When I met Elvis, we didn't really have a conversation. I was introduced by my uncle, and he sort of grunted my way. What stays with me is the whole scene. I had never seen a real mob scene before. I was really young and impressionable. Elvis really did look - he looked sort of not real, as if he were glowing. "

" TV does not care about you or what happens to you. It's downright bad for your health now, and that's not a far-out concept. I think watching the TV news is bad for you. It is bad for your physical health and your mental health. "

" There's nothing like that feeling of having just written a song that you know is 'the song,' and you know it's really great, and you can't wait to share it with people; you can't wait to record it. "

" The great thing about the Wilburys was that none of us had to take the heat by ourselves. I was just a member of the band. Nobody felt like he was above anybody else. We had such a good time. "

" A good song should give you a lot of images; you should be able to make your own little movie in your head to a good song. "

" Rock isn't a young music anymore. I don't think it's necessarily even a youth-oriented music. "

" I don't eat fish and chicken and all that. But I will have some eggs. So I'm not technically a vegan. But I eat pretty sensibly, and before a tour, I will usually work out a lot. I'll get a trainer, or I have a guy I've known a long time. "

" I love doing my 'Buried Treasure' show. "

" I developed a problem with authority. Any time that authority was what I interpreted as being unjust, I stood up to it, and that became my personality. "

" When I was 15 or 16 playing in groups, we used to sit in the car and try to write the lyrics down as a song was playing, and we'd assign each person a verse, you know: 'I'm going to do the first one. You go for the second one.' And then sometimes you'd wait an hour for it to come on again so you could finish it up. "