408 Quotes by Nick Cave

You can’t trust an artist that just makes good records.

I still feel very much an imposter in the whole music scene, which I’m quite happy about to be honest.

I look down at the city again. From here the city resembles a severed head, incinerated and discarded by the side of the river; its cavernous eye sockets are empty, bundles of dead nerves dangle from its neck, its shattered mouth gapes, a few desolate wires hang from its stark, scorched skull and, suddenly and incomprehensibly and so foreign to my body I could weep, I feel my heart expand with what I can only describe as a sensation of hope. Is there a word for that? Hope in the face of grand calamity.

It’s always a pleasure on a personal note for me to come back to Australia.

I’ve always had an obligation to creation, above all.

I’m a big fan of teatowels and am always on the lookout for a good one.

Everyone loves a good boxing story, especially God.

I’m not religious, and I’m not a Christian, but I do reserve the right to believe in the possibility of a God. It’s kind of defending the indefensible, though; I’m critical of what religions are becoming, the more destructive they’re becoming. But I think as an artist, particularly, it’s a necessary part of what I do, that there is some divine element going on within my songs.

The work ethic at art school is completely different than the work ethic amongst people who get into music. People who paint, it’s an honorable thing to spend all day and all night in front of your canvas – that is the romantic vision of the painter.