Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to play music that I liked, and even when I was in cover bands when I was a teenager we only played cover tunes that we liked. That was the simple morality that I grew up with. – Neil Peart
For me, drum elements are like hieroglyphics – I think of a certain physical figure, and a little three-dimensional glyph will appear in my mind as I’m playing. – Neil Peart
I believe in taxation and health care that is outside the usual libertarian mandate, because I don’t want people to have to suffer. It’s as simple as that. – Neil Peart
It was actually drumming that gave me the stamina to get into sports later. I started playing drums at 13, and when I got to the international touring level… I got interested in cross-country skiing, long-distance swimming, bicycling… things that require stamina, not finesse. – Neil Peart
In 2007, I studied with Peter Erskine because I was doing a Buddy Rich tribute concert, and I wanted to take my big-band drumming up a level. I went over to Peter’s house with my sticks, feeling like a 13-year-old again. – Neil Peart
The government’s only functions are to protect the rights of the individual; therefore, you need a police force and an army. – Neil Peart
It seems to me that’s the only way you can have a truly creative aggregate of people is if they’re all contributing in different ways. – Neil Peart
Drumming completely eclipsed my life from age 13, when I started drum lessons. Everything disappeared. I’d done well in school up until that time. I was fairly adjusted socially up until that time. And I became completely monomania, obsessed all through my teens. Nothing else existed anymore. – Neil Peart
Extroverts never understand introverts, and it was like that in school days. I read recently that all of us can be defined in adult life by the way others perceived us in high school. – Neil Peart
You have to know when you’re at the top of your particular mountain, I guess. Maybe not the summit, but as high as you can go. – Neil Peart
I sang the hymns, and I read the Bible stories, but I was always perplexed, like, ‘Really? Jesus wants you for a sunbeam? For a what?’ – Neil Peart
I don’t like lyrics that are just thrown together, that were obviously written as you went along, or the song was already written and the guy made up the lyrics in five minutes. – Neil Peart
I’m learning all the time. I’m evolving all the time as a human being. I’m getting better, I hope, in all of the important ways. – Neil Peart
I had spindly little ankles, and growing up in Canada, I couldn’t skate. I was no good at any sports so was very much a pariah through those adolescent years. – Neil Peart
There’s still a lot I’m angry about, a lot of human behaviour that’s appalling and despicable, but you choose what you can fight against. I always thought if I could just put something in words perfectly enough, people would get the idea and it would change things. – Neil Peart
The Seven Cities of Gold always fascinated me. Southwestern U.S. history especially fascinates me. The whole spur of the Spanish exploration of the Southwestern U.S. was the search for these mythical Seven Cities of Gold. – Neil Peart
It astonished me in the early Nineties to suddenly have musicians admit that they had been inspired and influenced by us. That meant a lot at that time. But of course, being human, the… disrespect isn’t even strong enough a word, is it? The opprobrium was painful. Being popular and hated is not satisfying. – Neil Peart
I’ve heard the stories. Like, Eric Clapton said he wanted to burn his guitar when he heard Jimi Hendrix play. I never understood that because, when I went and saw a great drummer or heard one, all I wanted to do was practice. – Neil Peart
What I’ve learned over the years is that the craft of songwriting is trying to take the personal and make it universal – or in the case of telling a story, taking the universal and making it personal. – Neil Peart
It’s not the music you hear in your head that other people are going to hear. You have to be able to make it true enough to the image in your head, and that’s where technique and technology come in, for sure, and knowledge. It’s not true and will never be true that someone who knows nothing can sit in a basement and make great music. – Neil Peart
It’s interesting. I’ve known quite a few good athletes that can’t begin to play a beat on the drum set. Most team sport is about the smooth fluidity of hand-eye coordination and physical grace, where drumming is much more about splitting all those things up. – Neil Peart
I think, in music, you’re always hoping that you’ll have a like-minded audience and that the music you like making will appeal to them, too. – Neil Peart
