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" I went to New York in 1974, to either try to get a record deal, get into the New York Art Student League, or be a dancer. So that was my plan. Some plan. And I had no money. "
John Mellencamp
Art
Money
New York
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" A painting has to be beautiful. Even in its grotesqueness. "
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" This is about black people selling out other black people. "
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Other
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" My grandmother made sure that I went to church every Sunday. And she'd come over and pick us boys up, and we would go to the Nazarene church. And back then, that was about as close to heaven as I ever got, because just the time to be able to spend with her, and she was very, very religious. "
John Mellencamp
Time
Sunday
She
" In so many musicals today, the story is moved forward by a song. I don't think we're gonna try to do that. "
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Try
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Forward
" Regret should be handled swiftly, and you shouldn't hold onto it. People spend their entire lives regretting what they didn't do and what they should've done. Hey, man, you did what you did. "
John Mellencamp
Man
Regret
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" When people are afraid, they make emotional decisions. "
John Mellencamp
Decisions
Afraid
Emotional
" American folk songs were about tragedy, right? They were about suffering and tragedy, and a lot of my songs are about that, even though they were misunderstood. "
John Mellencamp
Right
Tragedy
American
" I was born with Spina bifida. That's where you have a hole in your spine, and your nerve endings come out. "
John Mellencamp
Hole
Your
You
" All I'm doing is painting. It's my hobby. And that's that. "
John Mellencamp
Hobby
Painting
Doing
" I wanted to study at the Art Students League in New York when I was young, but I didn't have the money. Then I was fortunate enough to become Johnny Cougar Mellencamp. At the time, I thought I'd make a couple of records and get back to painting. It never dawned on me that I'd be 64 years old and still making music. "
John Mellencamp
Money
Art
Time
" My best songs come from a place outside myself. "
John Mellencamp
Place
Best
Come
" 'Jack & Diane' was originally about race. I was playing nightclubs, and I was seeing new American couples, mixed-race couples. I thought it was cool. The song was my effort to make a song about that, but of course the record-company guy didn't like it. "
John Mellencamp
Cool
American
Thought
" I'm the guy who wrote The Authority Song. Did they think I was kidding? Did they think it was only a song to entertain? "
John Mellencamp
Who
Guy
Authority
" I thought I knew a lot about music. Then you start digging and the deeper you go, the more there is. "
John Mellencamp
Music
Start
Thought
" My thought was I should try to stick with names that people may recognize like Robert Johnson, Son House, and Hoagy Carmichael, so if somebody cared to research, they would find a wealth of material. "
John Mellencamp
Thought
Wealth
People
" It's my responsibility as a singer-songwriter to report the news. "
John Mellencamp
Singer-Songwriter
News
Responsibility
" One quality of a good songwriter is to be vague. A vague notion, a vague image, but enough to give the listener the opportunity to make more out of what's being said than is there. That's the great thing about Bob Dylan's songs: We the listeners have made more out of them than he ever intended. "
John Mellencamp
Great
Good
Said
" Everything I see and hear... I will take ideas from anyplace, anywhere, anytime, and life has become a song to me. I'm always looking for a song. "
John Mellencamp
Always
Song
Life
" Wait a minute, guys, I have always been on your side. I have always spoken for you, always tried to put on a good face for the state of Indiana. All of a sudden, some of you people think I'm a bad guy? "
John Mellencamp
You
Wait
Think
" I'm wide open and will entertain anything anybody has to say, but if it's MTV and radio, well, they're great things, but can't be the only thing. I don't know that it would work even for the Beatles. "
John Mellencamp
Great Things
Work
Great
" Life should never be viewed from the vantage point of achievements. It is total folly. "
John Mellencamp
Folly
Point
Life
" I've just been fortunate to havehad a lot of hit records, though Human Wheels doesn't qualify as a hit record-but it's really the best single I've ever had. "
John Mellencamp
Single
Been
Best
" I would never say John Kerry would be a great president. I will say that George Bush has divided us; he has filled this country with hatred. "
John Mellencamp
Great
Divided
Us
" If I'm painting, I paint every day. I'll be up in the studio from 8:00 in the morning to 8:00 at night. "
John Mellencamp
Day
Night
Morning
" When did Jimmy Stewart not play Jimmy Stewart? When did John Wayne not play John Wayne? But that's what we like about them. When you talk about acting, you really have to respond to somebody's personality. "
John Mellencamp
Personality
Talk
Play
" I'm your average Joe guy. I don't really care for politicians. "
John Mellencamp
Your
Politicians
Guy
" If I laugh a couple of times a day, I'm doing good. People think it's their God-given right to be happy, and it's just not. It's something you've got to work at. I like to paint the human condition, and the human condition is not smiles and happy people. "
John Mellencamp
Day
Good
Happy
" A lot of Woody Guthrie's songs were taken from other songs. He would rework the melody and lyrics, and all of a sudden it was a Woody Guthrie song. "
John Mellencamp
Song
Songs
Other
" We could walk 3 minutes and be on the beach. I think the music kind of suffered because of it. It kind of smelled like Jimmy Buffett, which is a bad thing. "
John Mellencamp
Beach
Music
Think
" I'm using my art to comment on what I see. You don't have to agree with it. "
John Mellencamp
Comment
I See
See