71 Neil Young Quotes

Neil Percival Young is a multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter from Canada. He implements his lyrics and high-tenor voice to create albums covering rock, country, and folk genres. Along with playing the piano and harmonica, Neil is also a talented guitarist. His distorted style of playing the electric guitar earned him the title 'Godfather of Grunge’. Neil has been part of multiple bands and has a flourishing solo career. He is also a playwright, producer, and director, with many movies and film soundtracks attributed to his name. Neil Young proves that redefining yourself is key to making exceptional works of art. Some of his best albums are 'After the Gold Rush', 'Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere’, and 'Harvest’. The musician has two Grammys and many Juno Awards for his solo projects. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1982. Neil is one of the pioneer musical artists in America. He sold over 30 million of his albums globally, with 21 albums and singles being Gold and Platinum-certified. Throughout his career, Young has been with bands like Crazy Horse, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Pearl Jam, and Promise of the Real. You can go through this collection of Neil Young quotes to explore his perspective on love, freedom, and life. Some quotes are lyrics from his songs, outlining his beautiful style of expressing his emotions and thoughts. His experience might help you understand the world and yourself much better. These sayings can also work as your daily inspiration.

What parents should know

• ‘Freedom’ is Canadian-American musician Neil Young's 17th studio album, released on October 2, 1989. After a substantial unsuccessful period, Young's career was reborn with ‘Freedom’.
• Neil Young became famous as Buffalo Springfield's co-founder, alongside Stephen Stills and Richie Furay, and as a composer in 1966.
• He later rose to prominence as a singer in the band Crosby and an incredibly successful and renowned solo recording artist.

What to discuss with kids

• He's a tad bit country, a little bit rock n' roll, but he's still a folk singer with a soaring, beautiful voice and ragged guitar style.
• Neil Young got his first musical instrument in 1958. It was a plastic ukulele to stuff stockings for Christmas.
• Neil was diagnosed with polio at the age of seven in 1951 and recovered from the brink of death. 
• Early in his career, Neil secured a car so he could perform at gigs with his band. It was a 1948 Buick Roadmaster, a funeral car that he nicknamed Mortimer Hearseburg.      

1. "Without freedom of expression, good taste means nothing."

2. “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’.”

3. "Freedom of choice is meaningless without knowledge. That’s why it’s crucial we all get engaged and get informed."

4. "Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle for where we’re going. There’s something ahead worth fighting for."

5. “I can get away with saying a lot of ideas that are young and naive. I’m liberated.” 

6. "To protect our freedoms, it seems we're going to have to relinquish some of our freedoms for a short period of time."

7. "The '60s was one of the first times the power of music was used by a generation to bind them together."

8. "I am just a dreamer, but you are just a dream."

9. "I don't like to be labeled, to be anything. I've made the mistake before myself of labeling my music, but it's counter-productive."

10. "Being a musician enables a person to bend the notes and express things that are inside you, no matter what."

11. "There was a band playing in my head, And I felt like getting high."

12. "You know, the future's a huge, gigantic place. I have no idea what's going on out there, I'm just going to walk into it and see what happens."

13. "I used to walk like a giant on the land. Now I feel like a leaf floating in a stream."

14. "There's a lot of people saying we'd be better off dead. I don't feel like a satan but I guess I am, keep on rockin' the free world."

15. "Don't let it bring you down

It's only castles burning

Find someone who's turning

And you will come around." - ‘Don’t Let It Bring You Down’

16. "Out of the blue and into the black."

17. "I don't force it. If you don't have an idea and you don't hear anything going over and over in your head, don't sit down and try to write a song. You know, go mow the lawn...My songs speak for themselves."

18. "Freedom is an abstract offshoot. You can't describe freedom. How can you describe it? I tried and I failed."

19. “I’m not into this judgemental, religious-right kind of thing.” 

20. "Back then people closed their eyes and listened to music. Today there’s a lot of images that go with the music."

21. "All these people talking about morality should just take a walk downtown. They don't want to go downtown because instantly they see homeless people and they don't want to."

22. "Old man take a look at my life, I’m a lot like you were."

23. "The rockets and the satellites, spaceships that we're creating now, we're pollinating the universe."

24. "I’ve always been better moving than I am standing still."

25. "Respect Mother Earth and her giving ways or trade away our children's days."

26. "When you’re young, you don’t have any experience—you’re charged up, but you’re out of control. And if you’re old and you’re not charged up, then all you have is memories."

27. “I don’t think that one day really relates to the next day in life.”

28. "But if you’re charged and stimulated by what’s going on around you, and you also have experience, you know what to appreciate and what to pass by."

29. "Learning from other people is what music is all about."

30. "As you go through life, you’ve got to see the valleys as well as the peaks."

31. "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."

32. "It's better to burn out, than to fade away."

33. "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."

34. "I'm not into organized religion. I'm into believing in a higher source of creation, realizing we're all just part of nature."

35. “One new feature or fresh take can change everything.” 

36. "This old world keeps spinnin’ round; It’s a wonder tall trees ain’t layin’ down."

37. "A job is never truly finished. It just reaches a stage where it can be left on its own for a while."

38. "I think if you don't have some obsession in your life, you're dead."

39. "Love and only love will endure.” 

40. "You are like a hurricane

There’s calm in your eyes

And I’m getting blown away." - ‘Like A Hurricance’

41. "True love opens the gates of time."

42. "It’s going to take a lot of love to make things work outright."

43. "Only love can break your heart."

44. "Love is a rose 

But you better not pick it. 

It only grows 

When it’s on the vine. 

Handful of thorns 

And you’ll know you missed it.

 You lose your love 

When you say the word MINE." - ‘Love Is A Rose’

45. "Once I thought I saw you in a crowded hazy bar

Dancing on the light from star to star

Far across the moonbeam I know that's who you are

I saw your brown eyes turning once to fire." - ‘Like A Hurricane’

46. “When we were strangers

I watched you from afar 

When we were lovers

I loved you with all my heart.” - ‘Harvest Moon’

47. "You could have been anyone to me

Before that moment you touched my lips 

That perfect feeling when time just slips 

Away between us on our foggy trip" - ‘Like A Hurricane’

48. "Did He give me the gift of love to say who I could choose?” - ‘When God Made Me’

49. "A little love and affection in everything you do will make the world a better place with or without you."

50. “I want to love you

But I’m getting blown away.” - ‘Like A Hurricance’

51. “Hate is everything you think it is. Love and only love will break it down."

52. "Without Pegi, I'm an island without an ocean."

53. "I love it when people yell at me about the environment and then I tell 'em I'm burning 90% cleaner than them."

54. "I dislike what has happened to the quality of the sound of music; there is little depth or feeling left, and people can't get what they need from listening to music anymore, so it is dying."

55. "No matter how many books I write, I will eventually get to fiction. That is where I'm going."

56. "When the punk thing came along and I heard my friends saying, I hate these people with the pins in their ears. I said, Thank God, something got their attention."

57. "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."

58. "I don't like war. I particularly don't like the celebration of war, which I think the administration is a little bit guilty of."

59. “In the field of opportunity

It’s plowin’ time again.” - ‘Field Of Opportunity’

60. "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."

61. “I’ll go for things that I know are going to be wrong, with a vengeance.” 

62. "It's cool to go places where working people are happy."

63. "Steve Jobs was a digital pioneer, but when he went home, he listened to vinyl."

64. "Having no knowledge is sometimes exactly what is needed to find a solution, so I qualified."

65. "I have so many opinions about everything it just comes out during my music. It's a battle for me. I try not to be preachy. That's a real danger."

66. “The silver saxes,

a bass with a bow

The drummer relaxes

and waits between shows

For his cinnamon girl.” - ‘Neil Young - Greatest Hits (Songbook): Easy Guitar With Notes And Tab’

67. "If you follow every dream, you might get lost."

68. "It's hard enough losing with out the confusion of knowing I tried."

69. “The thing about music is, there really is no point.” 

70. "An idea discovered is much better possessed."

71. "I see a government completely out of control, and money is number one. Integrity isn't even on the map."

72. "I didn't really know what I was doing when I started. I just started writing songs. After two songs I just continued to explore it."

You Might Also Like

71 Country Band Names And Ideas For All Folk Music Fans

35+ Grunge Quotes Perfect For Captions From The Music And Subculture

80 Awesome Rock And Roll Trivia Questions For Budding Musicians