The songs that I like are the ones that you can’t visualize, that are just cries from the heart – those very straight, direct songs that make rock & roll music so wonderful. – Nick Cave
I have a very strange relationship in general with women around my music. There’s some that understand it and some that think there should be a law against it. – Nick Cave
People often can’t separate, or can’t understand, that to be funny is to be serious; it’s a way of pulling people in and not scaring them off. I think a lot of the funny stuff, underneath it, there’s a deep anxiety going on. – Nick Cave
I’m very happy to hear that my work inspires writers and painters. It’s the most beautiful compliment, the greatest reward. Art should always be an exchange. – Nick Cave
At the end, we’re kind of observers – creative people, I mean. I feel like an observer, and I’m pretty much able to step out of things and see how things are playing out. – Nick Cave
No, I wouldn’t direct a movie, no. I couldn’t. I don’t have the patience for it, I don’t have the people skills. You have to be clever. I’m not really clever in that kind of way. And you have to be able to manipulate people, but at the same time allow them to feel like they are manipulating you, to get the kind of movie that you want. – Nick Cave
In getting older, I find myself becoming progressively more ineffectual in a lot of different ways, and part of that is down to no longer having the youthful feeling that what you’re doing has any true impact. – Nick Cave
When you’re making a film, there are so many people involved that you get opinions and notes from people and you don’t even know who they are. I find that quite difficult and it wears you down. – Nick Cave
The more settled I’ve become, the more problematic my characters have become. There was a period when I wrote sensitive and gentle songs and these came at a time when life was at its most destructive. I think you write about what you need, on some level. – Nick Cave
To me, I don’t write when I’m depressed. If I’m depressed, which is actually rare, I’m not doing anything, you know, and I’m not able to do anything. – Nick Cave
I think it’s a part of us as human beings that we search outside of ourselves for meaning. – Nick Cave
Early on I realized when you write a song about someone, it flatters them on some level, and gives you a lot of room to move within a relationship. A song can kind of get the girl, for sure. – Nick Cave
After a while, you just don’t do things you don’t wanna do – that’s the great freedom you get, the older you get. You learn what to do and what not to do, and what will be a waste of time and what won’t be a waste of time. – Nick Cave
I’ve always been at war with the guitar. All vocalists are fighting a war with the electric rhythm guitar. – Nick Cave
My records are basically a litany of complaints against the world, and I’m quite like that in real life as well. – Nick Cave
I won’t go into the details, but I ready myself for the day. I am a high-maintenance type of guy. – Nick Cave
The guitar is something you kind of embrace, and the piano is something you kind of – when you play it, you sort of push it away. It feels very different. – Nick Cave
There’s an element to songwriting that I can’t explain, that comes from somewhere else. I can’t explain that dividing line between nothing and something that happens within a song, where you have absolutely nothing, and then suddenly you have something. It’s like the origin of the universe. – Nick Cave
My music has to do with beauty, and it’s intended to, if not lift the spirits, then be a kind of a balm to the spirits. – Nick Cave
My father was a teacher and my mother also worked in the school, so the family has a background in education. – Nick Cave
Self-editing is the way I write. Ten verses of a song and it’s finished. Then we start playing it and if I see that it’s too long, I’ll start cutting. – Nick Cave
Most of the time, feelings just seem to get in the way. They’re a luxury for the idle, a bourgeois concept. Feelings are overrated. – Nick Cave
People think I’m a miserable sod but it’s only because I get asked such bloody miserable questions. – Nick Cave
