60+ Inspirational Neil Young Quotes [2024] Singer & Songwriter

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Updated: January 20th, 2022

Neil Young is a celebrated Canadian-American Singer, Songwriter, Musician, and also an activist.

Neil Young released many award-winning and popular albums, such as "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere", "After the Gold Rush", and "Harvest".

He won several Grammy and Juno Awards. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him twice: in 1995 as a solo artist and in 1997 as a member of Buffalo Springfield. Rolling Stone named Neil Young 34th rank on their list of the 100 greatest musical artists In the Year 2000.

We've put together an incredible collection of Neil Young quotes to read.

Here they are:

60+ Inspirational Neil Young Quotes [2024] Singer & Songwriter

List of Inspiring Neil Young Quotes

“I’m not the same as I was long ago, I’ve learned some new things and I hope that it shows.” - Neil Young

“It doesn’t mean that much to me to mean that much to you.” - Neil Young

“My life is not a political campaign. I just write about what is on my mind. I just play whatever I feel like playing. Whatever is in my soul at the time is what I want to do. I have, thank god, enough people who are still interested in what I am doing so that I can go out and keep doing it.” - Neil Young

“I always play more than I talk, so the more I talk, the more I’ll play.” - Neil Young

“A lot of people that buy vinyl today don’t realize that they’re listening to CD masters on vinyl and that’s because the record companies have figured out that people want vinyl, And they’re only making CD masters in digital, so all the new products that come out on vinyl are actually CDs on vinyl, which is really nothing but a fashion statement.” - Neil Young

“There’s an edge to real rock ‘n’ roll. It’s all that matters.” - Neil Young

“I want to live, I want to give, I’ve been a miner for a heart of gold.” - Neil Young

“Respect Mother Earth and her giving ways or trade away our children’s days.” - Neil Young

“I see a government completely out of control, and money is number one. Integrity isn’t even on the map.” - Neil Young

“For whatever you’re doing, for your creative juices, your geography’s got a hell of a lot to do with it. You really have to be in a good place, and then you have to be either on your way there or on your way from there.” - Neil Young

“Listen to your own voice. Don’t listen to someone else’s. To me the way to live is to always move forward – to keep searching for whatever it is that interests you.” - Neil Young

“Only love can break your heart.” - Neil Young

“Every wave is new until it breaks.” - Neil Young

“Love and only love will endure. Hate is everything you think it is. Love and only love will break it down.” - Neil Young

“As I get older, I get smaller. I see other parts of the world I didn’t see before. Other points of view. I see outside myself more.” - Neil Young

“When people start asking you to do the same thing over and over again, that’s when you know you’re way too close to something that you don’t want to be near.” - Neil Young

“I don’t like the current political system in the USA and some other countries. Increasingly democracy has been hijacked by corporate interests.” - Neil Young

“Southern change gonna come at last! Now your crosses are burning fast, Southern Man.” - Neil Young

“True love opens the gates of time.” - Neil Young

“Out of the blue and into the black” - Neil Young

“Learning from other people is what music is all about.” - Neil Young

“It’s going to take a lot of love to make things work outright.” - Neil Young

“My my, hey hey, Rock and roll is here to stay. Hey hey, my my… Rock and roll will never die.” - Neil Young

“Corporations don’t have children. They don’t have feelings or souls. They don’t depend on uncontaminated water, clean air, or healthy food to survive. They are beholden to one thing – the bottom line.” - Neil Young

“When I speak out on corporations hurting the common man or the environment or other species, I expect a well-financed disinformation campaign to be aimed my way.” - Neil Young

“There’s more to a picture than meets the eye.” - Neil Young

“Link Wray, He was the beginning of Grunge, way before anybody you know.” - Neil Young

“Steve Jobs was a digital pioneer, but when he went home, he listened to vinyl.” - Neil Young

“If you follow every dream, you might get lost.” - Neil Young

“Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle for where we’re going. There’s something ahead worth fighting for.” - Neil Young

“Old man take a look at my life, I’m a lot like you were.” - Neil Young

“I’m not a preacher, and I’m certainly not a good example, but I have my own feelings about God. I’m kind of a nature guy. My cathedral is forests, or the prairies, or the beach.” - Neil Young

“I just do what I do. I like to make music” - Neil Young

“I’ve always been better moving than I am standing still.” - Neil Young

“The ’60s was one of the first times the power of music was used by a generation to bind them together.” - Neil Young

“I dreamed I saw the silver spaceships flying in the yellow haze of the sun. There were children crying and colors flying all around the chosen ones.” - Neil Young

“Without freedom of expression, good taste means nothing.” - Neil Young

“Back then people closed their eyes and listened to music. Today there’s a lot of images that go with the music. A lot of music is crap and it’s all commercial and the images are all trying to sell the record.” - Neil Young

“If you wanna write a song, ask a guitar” - Neil Young

“I used to walk like a giant on the land. Now I feel like a leaf floating in a stream” - Neil Young

“Some get stoned, some get strange, but sooner or later it all gets real.” - Neil Young

“I don’t look at a knife the way I used to. I’m more aware of what it is. I think twice. This is a key finger. It’s in every chord.” - Neil Young

“A little love and affection in everything you do will make the world a better place with or without you.” - Neil Young

“I am just a dreamer, but you are just a dream” - Neil Young

“You have to be ready to give everything you have, and you have to make sure you’ve really got a lot to give. Because if … you’re not ready to give everything you have, … then you’re nothin’.” - Neil Young

“Freedom of choice is meaningless without knowledge. That’s why it’s crucial we all get engaged and get informed.” - Neil Young

“Music is fulfilling. The next day you

“I just wrote one song at a time. Kinda like an alcoholic. One day at a time.” - Neil Young

“The devil fools with the best-laid plans.” - Neil Young

“It’s better to burn out than to fade away.” - Neil Young

“People who agree with you already agree with you — you don’t change people’s minds.” - Neil Young

“Holding back is so close to stealing.” - Neil Young

“The true martial artist yields to the weak while withstanding the strong.” - Neil Young

“Live music is better.” - Neil Young

“You are like a hurricane, there’s calm in your eyes, and I’m getting blown away.” - Neil Young

“Crazy friends provide for crazy times, and such crazy times we’re had.” - Neil Young

“I try not to look back. I’m looking forward. I’m worried more about what I’m going to do next week than I am what I did last week. There are too many things to do. Looking back is for everybody else.” - Neil Young

“We live in the digital age and, unfortunately, it’s degrading our music, not improving it It’s not that digital is bad or inferior, it’s that the way it’s being used isn’t doing justice to the art. The MP3 only has 5 percent of the data present in the original recording. … The convenience of the digital age has forced people to choose between quality and convenience, but they shouldn’t have to make that choice.” - Neil Young

“As you go through life, you’ve got to see the valleys as well as the peaks.” - Neil Young

“Nothing is perfect in God’s perfect plan.” - Neil Young

“Most pleasures, like flowers when gathered die.” - Neil Young

“One good thing about the past is that you can’t change it. So there’s no reason to go back. It’s there. It is what it is. The only thing you can change is right now and what’s happening next.” - Neil Young

“It's better to burn out than to fade away.” - Neil Young

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