37 Quotes by David Knopfler

Trust the tale, not the teller.

Now I'm having to live with sales of around 50,000 per album - but I'm pretty content with my place in the general scheme of things, even if it's meant I don't drive a fancy car and can't afford grand vacations.

Gandhi was only minding his own business when he took a walk to get some salt and ended up overthrowing the British Empire. You can't set out to overthrow an empire, but if you have to get some salt then get some salt. If you have to write some independent songs that are honest, just write them. If you have to do a day job stacking shelves, so be it.

I'm pretty much below the radar of commercial visibility everywhere, though the US is indeed the place I've sadly most neglected.

In the early days I really enjoyed the freedoms it offered because I was happy to work the long hours as long as I was working from home a lot.

Whatever the opposite of regret is best describes how I’ve always felt about that decision – it opened me up to a million creative opportunities I needed to experience away from the bull and distorting mirrors that fame engenders.

Now that I’m staring down the barrel of the last act of my life, I’m less excited about control and solo effort, and I resent the way the business aspects interfere with my space for creative writing.

I always liked the magic of poetry but now I’m just starting to see behind the curtain of even the best poets, how they’ve used, tried and tested craft to create the illusion. Wonderful feeling of exhilaration to finally be there.

I feel like I’m stepping into a place of spiritual contemplation every time I enter a studio; it’s always had a certain magic to me that has never worn off with familiarity.