Nick Cave: Trending quotes (page 3)

“Oh, a passing, skeptical kind of interest. I'm a hammer-and-nails kind of guy.”

Nick Cave

Cave on his interest in Eastern and nontheistic spirituality
God and religion

Guy

“The spears of the bright sun, all brave with its conquest,
Did hover unearthly, in banners of fire.
I knelt in the garden, awash with the dawning,
And a voice came so brightly, I covered my eyes.”

Nick Cave

Song lyrics, Tender Prey (1988), New Morning

Sun

“When ya done ransackin' his room,
Grabbin' any-damn-thing that shines,
Throw the scraps down on the street,
Like all his books and his notes.
All his books and his notes and all the junk that he wrote,
The whole fucken lot goes right up in smoke.”

Nick Cave

Song lyrics, From Her to Eternity (1984), A Box for Black Paul

Books

“Along crags and sunless cracks I go,
Up rib of rock, down spine of stone,
I dare not slumber where the right winds whistle,
Lest her creeping-soul clutch this heart of thistle.”

Nick Cave

Song lyrics, From Her to Eternity (1984), Well of Misery

Soul , Heart

“I am the black crow king,
Keeper of the forgotten corn,
The King!”

Nick Cave

Song lyrics, The Firstborn Is Dead (1985), Black Crow King

“The thing about being young is that you think you're the final product of evolution. You are invincible. And nothing can hurt you. And people don't count. Ah, the solipsism of youth.”

Nick Cave

Melody Maker (May, 1997)
Ageing and death

People , Youth , Thinking , Hurt

“Hit it! With words like Blood, Soldier and Mother…”

Nick Cave

Song lyrics, Prayers on Fire (1981), A Dead Song

“The carny had a horse, all skin and bone,
A bow-backed nag, that he named "Sorrow",
Now it is buried in a shallow grave,
In the then parched meadow.”

Nick Cave

Song lyrics, Your Funeral… My Trial (1986), The Carny

Horse

“O you recall the song ya used to sing-a-long,
Shifting the river-trade on that ol' steamer,
Life is but a dream!”

Nick Cave

Song lyrics, From Her to Eternity (1984), Saint Huck

Life , Dreams , Singing

“Tupelo-o-o! Hey, Tupelo! You will reap just what you sow.”

Nick Cave

Song lyrics, The Firstborn Is Dead (1985), Tupelo

“The actualising of God through the medium of the love song remains my prime motivation as an artist.”

Nick Cave

Given during a lecture at the Vienna Poetry Festival (1998)
God and religion

Love , God , Motivation

“Of course I doubt [the existence of God], I would distrust anybody who didn't doubt. But I'm a believer. I have an understanding and belief in the divinity of things. It seems to me that people look at God in the wrong way. They think that God is there to serve them, but it's the other way around. God isn't some kind of cosmic bell-boy to be called upon to sort things out for us. It's important for us to realise that God has given us the potential to sort things out on our own.”

Nick Cave

Observer (May, 1998)
God and religion

God , People , Way , Boy

“King Ink strolls into town…
He sniffs around.”

Nick Cave book King Ink

Song lyrics, Prayers on Fire (1981), King Ink

“O poor heart, I was doomed from the start,
Doomed to play the villian's part,
I was the baddest Johnny in the apple cart,
My blood was blacker than the chambers of a dead nun's heart.”

Nick Cave

Song lyrics, Tender Prey (1988), Up Jumped the Devil

Heart , Parting , Dead

“Punishment? Reward! Punishment? Reward!”

Nick Cave

Song lyrics, Mutiny (1993), Mutiny in Heaven

“Here is the hammer, that build the scaffold, and built the box…”

Nick Cave

Song lyrics, From Her to Eternity (1984), A Box for Black Paul

Box

“Tallys up his loneliness, notch by notch,
For the sea offers nuthin' to hold or touch.”

Nick Cave

Song lyrics, From Her to Eternity (1984), Cabin Fever!

Loneliness , Sea

“Although I've never been an atheist, there are periods when I struggled with the whole thing. As someone who uses words, you need to able to justify your belief with language, I'd have arguments and the atheist always won because he'd go back to logic. Belief in God is illogical, it's absurd. There's no debate. I feel it intuitively, it comes from the heart, a magical place. But I still I fluctuate from day to day. Sometimes I feel very close to the notion of God, other times I don't. I used to see that as a failure. Now I see it as a strength, especially compared to the more fanatical notions of what God is. I think doubt is an essential part of belief.”

Nick Cave

Mojo (January, 2005)
God and religion

God , Feeling , Failure , Thinking

“I hear stories from the chamber,
How Christ was born into a manger,
And like some ragged stranger died up on the cross,
And might I say it seems to fitting in its way,
He was a carpenter by trade,
Or at least that's what I'm told.”

Nick Cave

Song lyrics, Tender Prey (1988), The Mercy Seat

Way , Christ

“Well saturday gives what sunday steals,
And a child is born on his brother's heels,
Come sunday morn the first-born is dead,
In a shoebox tied with a ribbon of red.”

Nick Cave

Song lyrics, The Firstborn Is Dead (1985), Tupelo

Dead