“The man bent over his guitar,
A shearsman of sorts. The day was green.
They said, "You have a blue guitar,
You do not play things as they are."
The man replied, "Things as they are
Are changed upon the blue guitar."
And they said then, "But play, you must,
A tune beyond us, yet ourselves,
A tune upon the blue guitar
Of things exactly as they are."”
The Man With the Blue Guitar (1937)
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Wallace Stevens 278
American poet 1879–1955Related quotes
“And that's life, then: things as they are,
This buzzing of the blue guitar.”
The Man With the Blue Guitar (1937)
Context: So that's life, then: things are they are?
It picks its way on the blue guitar.
A million people on one string?
And all their manner in the thing,
And all their manner, right and wrong,
And all their manner, weak and strong?
And that's life, then: things as they are,
This buzzing of the blue guitar.
“If you hand me a guitar, I'll play the blues. That's the place I automatically go.”
“The blue guitar
And I are one.”
The Man With the Blue Guitar (1937)
“I'll tell you one thing: I will always play the sh** out of my guitar.”
As quoted in "Shred on Arrival" in Guitar World (November 1993).
On female guitarists, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8EKTGlQp-c, 2016
John Lennon interview with Rolling Stone magazine (December 1970)
Context: When I was about twelve, I used to think I must be a genius, but nobody's noticed. Either I'm a genius or I'm mad, which is it? "No," I said, "I can't be mad because nobody's put me away; therefore I'm a genius." Genius is a form of madness and we're all that way. But I used to be coy about it, like me guitar playing. But if there's such a thing as genius — I am one. And if there isn't, I don't care.
Ziggy Stardust
Song lyrics, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)