I’m writing about real things. Real people. Real characters. You have to believe what I write about is true or you wouldn’t pay any attention at all. Sometimes it’s me, or a composite of me and other people. Sometimes it’s not me at all. – Lou Reed
I don’t know what goes on in the crowd. I’ve had them show up and throw beer cans at me. I caused riots in most of the major cities. – Lou Reed
I think that everything happens for a reason, everything happens when it’s going to happen. – Lou Reed
There’s only X amount of time. You can do whatever you want with that time. It’s your time. – Lou Reed
I don’t believe in dressing up reality. I don’t believe in using makeup to make things look smoother. – Lou Reed
Music should come crashing out of your speakers and grab you, and the lyrics should challenge whatever preconceived notions that listener has. – Lou Reed
How can anybody learn anything from an artwork when the piece of art only reflects the vanity of the artist and not reality? – Lou Reed
I’ll tell ya, I’m a genuinely nice guy. I really am. A real nice guy. But I think I’m temperamental. – Lou Reed
I am very emotionally affected by sound. Sounds are the inexplicable… There is a sound you hear in your head, it’s your nerves, or your blood running. – Lou Reed
These are really terribly rough times, and we really should try to be as nice to each other as possible. – Lou Reed
I was a product of Andy Warhol’s Factory. All I did was sit there and observe these incredibly talented and creative people who were continually making art, and it was impossible not to be affected by that. – Lou Reed
I can’t do anything I want to. I mean, I can’t have my own TV show. I can’t have my own movie. But within my little world, nobody tells me what to put on the albums. – Lou Reed
The music is all. People should die for it. People are dying for everything else, so why not the music? – Lou Reed
I don’t think anybody is anybody else’s moral compass. Maybe listening to my music is not the best idea if you live a very constricted life. Or maybe it is. – Lou Reed
