“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.”
Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer
(on or before 1979), attributed in print in the magazine Time Barrier Express in the September-October 1979 issue in an article by Gary Sperrazza. Writing About Music is Like Dancing About Architecture: Laurie Anderson? Steve Martin? Frank Zappa? Martin Mull? Elvis Costello? Thelonius Monk?, Quote Investigator (blog), November 9, 2010 http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/11/08/writing-about-music/, <br class="br">Attributed
“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.”
Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer
“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture — it's a really stupid thing to want to do.”
Elvis Costello (1954) English singer-songwriter
This has commonly been paraphrased "Talking about music is like dancing about architecture." More info at "Alan P. Scott : Talking about music..." http://home.pacifier.com/~ascott/they/tamildaa.htm Also, Costello has denied http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/11/08/writing-about-music/ having coined this, in an interview in Q magazine, tentatively attributing the quote instead to Martin Mull. <br class="br">Misattributed
“Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.”
Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer
M.I.A. (1975) British recording artist, songwriter, painter and director
Interview http://niralimagazine.com/2004/10/not-so-missing-in-action/ with Nirali magazine (October 2004) <br class="br">Sourced quotes
Burkard Schliessmann classical pianist
Peter J. Rabinowitz in Fanfare - The Magazin for Serious Record Collectors, USA, January/February 2011, Chopin-Schumann Anniversary Edition 2010 in the interpretation of Burkard Schliessmann, Volume 34, Number 3, p. 255
Mubarak Ali (1941) Historian, activist, scholar
In Search of History, Chapter I: War and Peace in Historical Perspectives, p. 1
Culture
Vyjayanthimala (1936) Indian actress, politician & dancer
Vyjayanthimala still cuts a striking figure tall
Nigella Lawson (1960) British food writer, journalist and broadcaster
As quoted in "Reality bites" by Simon Hattenstone in The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,784535,00.html (2 September 2002)