Roger Waters Quotes (52 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

"The Tide Is Turning (After Live Aid)", on Radio K.A.O.S. (1987) - Full lyrics at LyricWiki http://lyrics.wikia.com/Roger_Waters:The_Tide_Is_Turning_(After_Live_Aid) · Tour performance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66nqhVtq6xo · Video 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvTvWJWeQ2g Live in Berlin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFWCAYPWFbs

“Earlier this year we went skiing and I was in a shop, paying a bill and there was a woman standing there whom I knew slightly. I was waiting for my bill and she was buying something, a tea strainer. Quite suddenly she said to me, 'Where was your Father killed?'. I was very surprised and blurted out 'Oh Anzio'. Now this is a woman of about my age, so she's 40-ish. She said, 'My Father was killed in the war'. Apparently somebody lent her a copy of 'The Final Cut' and she had listened to the whole thing and she had found it very moving. In fact she said it had moved her to tears. She told me this, standing in the shop, with some effort I suspect, and I remember thinking: That's enough really. It doesn't matter if the Americans don't buy it.”

Roger Waters

Karl Dallas Interview, 1984
Music

“"I like to think oysters transcend national barriers, Adrian." - Pink Floyd: Live At Pompeii video, in an interview with director Adrian Maben.”

Roger Waters

Miscellaneous

“"I was quite happy standing there thundering about, playing whatever I could - that's "fun". And I see young bands occasionally now doing the same thing. I think it's called "thrash" now. It's the same thing: It's just kids who can't play, pissing about. It's terrific. That's all we were doing. I mean, Dave could play a little bit, but none of the rest of us could."”

Roger Waters

Musician, December 1992
Music

Roger Waters Quotes about water

“"The Powers That Be" on Radio KAOS (Roger Waters, 1987)”

Roger Waters

Variant: "Me Or Him" on Radio KAOS (Roger Waters, 1987)

“"Amused to Death" on Amused to Death (Roger Waters, 1992)”

Roger Waters

“"Perfect Sense (part I)" on Amused to Death (Roger Waters, 1992)”

Roger Waters

Variant: "Perfect Sense" on Amused to Death (Roger Waters, 1992)

“"Leaving Beirut" on To Kill the Child/ Leaving Beirut (Roger Waters, 2005), regarding the war in Iraq”

Roger Waters

“"5.06 AM (Every Strangers Eyes)" on The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking (Roger Waters, 1985)”

Roger Waters

“Bob Ezrin about Waters: "I hate the word "artist," but I would definitely concede that Roger is a great artist…as well as a total obsessive and psychiatrist's dream."”

Roger Waters

Roger Waters: Trending quotes

“This is the crap that our children are learningBut ooh, the tide is turning.”

Roger Waters

"The Tide Is Turning (After Live Aid)", on Radio K.A.O.S. (1987)
Context: Who is the strongest, who is the best
Who holds the aces, the East or the West
This is the crap that our children are learningBut ooh, the tide is turning.

“It's actually quite emotional, standing up here with these three guys after all these years, standing to be counted with the rest of you. Anyway, we're doing this for everyone who's not here, and particulary of course for Syd”

Roger Waters

LIVE 8, Hyde Park, London, July 2005
Music

“The ghosts are walking by my side
I feel their love I feel their pride
For I have built a bridge or two
Bridges between me and you.
Hello I love you.”

Roger Waters

"Hello (I Love You)"

Roger Waters Quotes

“It's like saying 'Give a man a Les Paul guitar and he becomes Eric Clapton,' you know. It's not true. And give a man an amplifier and a synthesizer, and he doesn't become whoever, you know. He doesn't become us.”

Roger Waters

Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii
Music

“"I’m not a huge practicing Christian myself, but it just staggers me that people who claim to be can stand up and spout – like your president George Bush – can stand up and spout this bullshit about God supporting one side over another in war, which is why I wrote the lyrics of the song "What God Wants": “God wants crusade/God wants Jihad.” Well it may well be that God doesn’t want either of those things. They’re manifestations of the insecurities of the Muslim and Christian communities. I hate when someone uses religion to bolster war in the world: it's extremely disgusting and offensive for me, and for all christians, because that was not what Christ was trying to teach."”

Roger Waters

"Roger Waters talks about What God Wants", a 1993 interview
Philosophy

“What it comes down to for me is: Will the technologies of communication and culture — and especially popular music, which is a vast and beloved enterprise — help us to understand one another better, or will they deceive us and keep us apart?”

Roger Waters

Penthouse Magazine, September, 1988
Philosophy

“Well, he's schizophrenic. And has been since 1968.”

Roger Waters

Roger Waters, interviewed on Australian radio (1988)

“Oh, they [the Media] definitely don't want to know the real Barrett story… there are no facts involved in the Barrett story so they can make up any story they like, and they do. There's a vague basis in fact: Syd was in the band and he did write the material on the first album, 80% of it, but that's all. It is only that one album, and that's what people don't realise. That first album, and one track on the second. That's all; nothing else.”

Roger Waters

quoted in Lost In The Woods by Julian Palacios, 1997
Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett

“"The Happiest Days of Our Lives" on The Wall (Pink Floyd, 1979)”

Roger Waters

“"Wish You Were Here" on Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd, 1975)”

Roger Waters

“Life is long but it goes fast.
The kids will have to separate
Their future from our past.”

Roger Waters

"Hello (I Love You)"

“The very early days of Pink Floyd were magical. We played small auditoriums for entranced audiences, and there was a wonderful sense of communion. We got overpowered by the weight of success and numbers — not just the money but the size of the audience. I became very disenchanted. I had to make the choice of staying on the treadmill or making the braver decision to travel a more difficult path alone.”

Roger Waters

USA Today, 1999
Philosophy

“Regarding the spate of High School shootings of 1999: "in the Colorado shootings, the media seemed to change their tack a bit. Though they attached ghoulishly to it, covered it 24 hours a day and even gave it a logo like 'Horror in the Rockies', they did address issues of alienation and pain rather than just saying, 'oh, these aberrant teen-agers have to be stamped out.' After denigrating self-help ideas for the last 20 years, the media are beginning to look at the psychology and not just the police work."”

Roger Waters

USA Today, 1999
Miscellaneous

“I'm not saying the battle is won
But on Saturday night all those kids in the sun
Wrested technology's sword from the hands of the warlords
Ooh, the tide is turning
Ooh, the tide is turning.”

Roger Waters

"The Tide Is Turning (After Live Aid)", on Radio K.A.O.S. (1987)

“It was very, very hard work organizing that Wall concert but everyone was fabulous to work with - Bryan Adams, Van Morrison, Cyndi Lauper, bloody brilliant. All brilliant. Except for Sinead O'Connor… She doesn't understand anything. She's just a silly little girl. You can't just lie in the corner and shave your bloody head and stick it up your arse and occasionally pull it out to go (_"brogue"_) 'Oh, I tink this is wrong and dat is wrong' and burst into tears.”

Roger Waters

Q magazine, November 1992
Music

“I could never aspire to Syd's crazed insights and perceptions. In fact for a long time I wouldn't have dreamt of claiming any insights whatsoever. I'll always credit Syd with the connection he made between his personal unconscious and the collective group unconscious. It's taken me 15 years to get anywhere near there. Even though he was clearly out of control when making his two solo albums, some of the work is staggeringly evocative. It's the humanity of it all that's so impressive. It's about deeply felt values and beliefs. Maybe that's what 'Dark Side of the Moon' was aspiring to. A similar feeling.”

Roger Waters

quoted in Lost In The Woods by Julian Palacios, 1997
Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett

“Have you heard
It was on the news
Your child can read you like a bedtime story
Like a magazine
Like a has-been out to grass
Like afternoon T. V.
Why is my life going by so fast?”

Roger Waters

"Hello (I Love You)" was a created as a musical collaboration between Howard Shore and Waters for the film The Last Mimzy (2007). At PR-inside http://www.pr-inside.com/waters-records-film-tune-with-oscar-winning-r37315.htm, Waters is quoted as saying: "I think together we've come up with a song that captures the themes of the movie — the clash between humanity's best and worst instincts, and how a child's innocence can win the day." Video and full lyrics online http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eK6FY4Hykc

“We've got the recording side together and not the playing side.”

Roger Waters

Melody Maker, August 1967
Music

“"Sheep" (paraphrasing Psalm 23) on Animals (Pink Floyd, 1977)”

Roger Waters

“At Live Earth on global warming "I think what you can do is vote…This problem will not be solved until we the electorates make it quite clear to candidates running for office that we will not vote for them unless they have a clear policy on the environment and global warming in particular. And also we will not vote for them if they have a track record like this current administration does."”

Roger Waters

citation needed
Politics

“"Free Four" on Obscured by Clouds (Pink Floyd, 1972)”

Roger Waters

“I had at one point this rather depressing image of some alien culture seeing the death of this planet - coming down in their spaceships and sniffing around; finding all our skeletons sitting around our TV sets and trying to work out why our end came before its time and they come to the conclusion that we amused ourselves to death..”

Roger Waters

Amused to Death syndicate Radio Premiere, 1992
Music

“My mother told me I said to her, at age three, 'I'm going to go to Italy and get my father in a tractor.' 'You've never seen quite so fierce a little boy as you were,' she told me. She tried to explain that I couldn't get my father in a tractor. Apparently I looked at her and narrowed my eyes and said 'In that case, I'm going in a double-decker bus,' and stomped off. Which is kind of funny, but it's very sad, as well.”

Roger Waters

In an interview in Rolling Stones Magazine, September 30, 2010, talking about his father who was killed in WWII.
Miscellaneous

“"On the club scene we rate about two out of ten and 'Must try harder.' "We've had problems with our equipment and we can't get the P. A. to work because we play extremely loudly. It's a pity because Syd (singer Syd Barrett) writes great lyrics and nobody ever hears them."”

Roger Waters

Melody Maker, August, 1967
Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett

“I have nothing against Dave Gilmour furthering his own goals. It's just the idea of Dave's solo career masquerading as Pink Floyd that offends me!”

Roger Waters

Penthouse Magazine, September, 1988
Music

“"Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" on A Saucerful of Secrets (Pink Floyd, 1968)”

Roger Waters

“Well, anyway, I am one of the best five writers to come out of English music since the War.”

Roger Waters

Q magazine, November 1992
Music

“"Take up Thy Stethoscope and Walk" on The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (Pink Floyd, 1967)”

Roger Waters

“"Sheep" on Animals (Pink Floyd, 1977)”

Roger Waters

“"The Final Cut" on The Final Cut (Pink Floyd, 1983)”

Roger Waters

“For us the most important thing is to be visual, and for the cats watching us to have fun. This is all we want. We get very upset if people get bored when we're only half way through smashing the second set. Then all of a sudden they hear Arnold Layne and they flip all over again.”

Roger Waters

Rave UK Magazine, June 1967
Music

“Who's got my pig?”

Roger Waters

During Roger's Dark Side Of The Moon Tour at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Noblesville, Indiana when the pig was cut from the line and released into the sky.
Miscellaneous

“Oh, for fuck sake stop lighting off fireworks and shouting & screaming I'm trying to sing a song! I mean I don't care. If you don't want to hear it. You know fuck you. I'm sure there are a lot of people here who do want to hear it. So why don't you just be quiet. If you want to light your fireworks off go outside and light them off out there and if you want to shout and scream well then go and do it out there.... but. I am trying to sing a song that some people want to listen to. I want to listen to it.”

Roger Waters

During a concert for the "Animals" tour in Montreal, Quebec, 1977 [can be heard on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b2J9Qevo1E] <br class="br">Miscellaneous

“I was quite happy standing there thundering about, playing whatever I could - that's "fun.”

Roger Waters

And I see young bands occasionally now doing the same thing. I think it's called "thrash" now. It's the same thing: It's just kids who can't play, pissing about. It's terrific. That's all we were doing. I mean, Dave could play a little bit, but none of the rest of us could."
Musician, December 1992
Music