Quotes by Mark Knopfler - Page 1 | QuoteForever

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There's so many different worlds.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Different
Different Worlds
World
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I shoulda learned to play the guitar.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Guitar
Play
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Every guitar I own gets used and has its purpose.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Guitar
Purpose
Used
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The music just tends to be a vehicle for that poetry.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Vehicle
Tends
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I was into playing American music, especially the blues.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
American Music
Blues
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Sometimes you're the windshield; sometimes you're the bug.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Funny
Bugs
Humorous
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Sometimes you gotta be an s.o.b., you wanna make a dream reality
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Dream
Motivational
Reality
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I'm also getting an Ovation Legend, because I like them so much.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Legends
Ovation
Legend
Getting
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I love Gibsons, and Nationals, too. There's something magical about them.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Love Something About
Magical
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I'm not a collector, however, and I have no desire to own 50 or 60 guitars.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Collectors
Desire
Guitar
Collector
Guitars
However
No Desire
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After a while, though, the group just wasn't a good vehicle for the songs I'd written.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Vehicle
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What I always try to do is to respond to the song; I've always rebelled against theory.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Rebel
Song
Theory
Trying
Respond
Rebelled
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Then came the churches, then came the schools, then came the lawyers, then came the rules.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Church
Lawyer
School
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My idea of heaven is a place where the Tyne meets the Delta, where folk music meets the blues.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Music
Delta
Delta Blues
Folk Music
Heaven
Ideas
Blues
Idea
Folk
Place
Meets
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When you point your finger 'cause your plan fell through You got three more fingers pointing back at you!
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Causes
Fingers
Three
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My playing is fairly straightforward, really, and everything's pretty much standard no frills or special effects.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Frills
Special
Standards
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There's so many different worlds, so many different suns. And we have just one world, but we live in different ones.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Different
Diversity
World
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The 'music industry' is not a term I use. I tend to concentrate on music, and the music business is something different.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Music Business
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I actually spend as much time listening to new music as to old. Probably more. I just try to get something out of it all.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
New Music
Time Music New
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I don't really think of Dire Straits as a sound, you know. It. just depends on the song, and the stuff we're doing is so varied.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Song
Sound
Thinking
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Whenever a political regime or religious establishment refuses to tolerate criticism, it advertises itself as repressive, backward, and insecure.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Criticism
Establishment
Insecure
Political
Religious
Tolerate
Advertise
Backward
Itself
Refuses
Repressive
Whenever
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I bad a piano long before I bad a guitar, and the practice I got just playing those three chords in a basic 12-bar blues song was very important.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Guitar
Practice
Song
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Well, I was born in Scotland and spent the first six years of my life there. Then I went to Newcastle-On-Tyne in northeast England, close to Scotland.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Firsts
Scotland
Years
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I just try to stay fit. That's important - just to try to stay physically fit so you can go out there and play. You do need to be in reasonable shape.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Reasonable
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Last time I was sober, man I felt bad, Worst hangover that I ever had. It took six hamburgers, Scotch all night, Nicotine for breakfast just to put me right.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Drinking
Hangover
Night
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I just want to be able to play and make people feel good with what I do. When you're thinking that way, anything can happen. And, usually, what happens is good.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Feel Good
People
Play
Thinking
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For me, songwriting is really where it's at. I turn to use the guitar just to help me write the songs. That's it. As a result, my guitar playing suffers pretty horribly.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Guitar Playing
Songwriting
Horribly
Result
Suffers
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If you're thinking the road ahead is a little shorter than the one behind you, you're thinking about trying to write a good song and hoping to make a decent record of it.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Decent
Good Song
Hoping
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Instead of receding, the past actually becomes more important. That's what will happen to you. It sounds unlikely, but the past actually changes complexion as you get older.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Complexion
Unlikely
Receding
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While I was into many different types of music, and played with many different local groups, I really didn't have a band to call my own until Dire Straits was formed in 1977.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Band
Different
Groups
Music Own My Own
Different Types
Dire
Formed
Music My Own Own
Local
Types
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We used to play in a theater club in London called The King's Head. When the theater let nut, around 10:00 P.M., we'd be ready to go and really get it on for about an hour or so.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
London
Theater
About An Hour
Hour
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I used to go to the school folk club with my songs when I was only 13 or so and say "this is a traditional folk song" and sing it with a bad Irish accent to disguise the real source.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Real
School
Song
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I don't know whether your heart ever necessarily changes, but time changes the way that you perceive the world. And you just hope it gives you more empathy and all those other things.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Empathy
Heart
Perceive
Way
Things
Those
Changes
Ever
Gives
Necessarily
Other
Time Changes
Whether
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If you feel that you're not getting enough out of a song, change the instrument - go from an acoustic to an electric or vice versa, or try an open tuning. Do something to shake it up.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Electric
Tuning
Vice Versa
Acoustic
Instrument
Shake
Versa
Vice
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While listening, to things like western swing, for instance, I'd work something out in my head, then play it on my National; not the same song, but one that captured the feeling of the original tune.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Captured
Guitar
Instance
Song
Swings
Western
Swing
Tune
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I had a lot of jobs before I got into music. When I was 15, I was a copy boy for the 'Evening Chronicle' in Newcastle. Then I was a journalist. I value those experiences - I got to see how the world works.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Evening
Journalist
Newcastle
Chronicle
Copy
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As far as being a 'player's player,' you've only got to go to Nashville or Argentina and you can forget about it. The world is full of amazing guitar players, and you know it, and I know it...it's a humbling experience.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Experience
Music
Guitar
Player
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I don't like definitions, but if there is a definition of freedom, it would be when you have control over your reality to transform it, to change it, rather than having it imposed upon you. You can't really ask for more than.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Definitions
Reality
Would Be
Definition
Imposed
Transform
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Juliet, when we made love, you used to cry. You said, "I love you like the stars above, I'll love you 'til I die". There's a place for us, you know the movie song. When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Love You
Song
Stars
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I even played bass for a while. Besides playing electric guitar, I'd also get asked to play some acoustic stuff. But, since I didn't have an acoustic guitar at the time, I used to borrow one from a friend so I could play folk joints.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Acoustic Guitar
Bass
Electric
Electric Guitar
Guitar
Joints
Play
Acoustic
Besides
Borrow
Folk
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There happened to be guitar classes at the college, and there was a guitar teacher there with whom I used to play. In addition, I also would go out into country schools and teach little kids basic guitar and singing a few times a week.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Kids
Teacher
Country
Teach
Addition
Basic
Classes
Little Kids
Schools
Whom
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The music you make is shaped by what you play it on ... if you feel that you're not getting enough out of a song, change the instrument - go from an acoustic to an electric or vice versa, or try an open tuning ... do something to shake it up.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Music
Play
Song
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A Strat was a thing of wonder .. when I was 14 or 15, the Shadows were a big influence, and they had the first Strats that came to England. I like to play all kinds of guitars, but I wasn't getting the sound I really wanted until I got a Stratocaster
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Music
Guitar
Play
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I did learn eventually - perhaps far too late - to respect the talent I have. For a lot of years out there, I was just bashing on to the next thing and not really thinking about it too much. That's what we do. But I'm learning to appreciate the moment.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Too Late
Next Thing
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I don't know that I read more than the average person. I don't think I do very much. I tend to read more when I'm on holiday. That's when I can go through books like you wouldn't believe. I read a bit of everything, but the novel has always been very important to me.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Average
Average Person
Holiday
Always Believe Me
Believe Me Important
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Each song has its own secret that's different from another song, and each has its own life. Sometimes it has to be teased out, whereas other times it might come fast. There are no laws about songwriting or producing. It depends on what you're doing, not just who you're doing.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Depends
Law
Secret
Song
Songwriting
Producing
Teased
Whereas
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I canceled the Russian shows because, from the days of the first Dire Straits album, I've supported Amnesty International. It's not a good thing to read about people being jailed for no reason, so I raised my hand and made a small objection. It was good to do - but where do you stop?
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Amnesty
No Reason
Good People Stop
Good Where People
Dire
Good Thing
Jailed
Objection
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I still enjoy playing some of those early Straits songs, and I'm proud of what we did, and certainly we had some great times. It's what we all wanted when we were kids. But you've got to have the resilience to ride that thing, to pick up that ball and run with it. Because you will keep picking it up and keep running.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Resilience
Ball
Certainly
Pick
Ride
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I left for the same reasons everyone leaves jobs that are no longer fulfilling their hopes and aspirations. I didn't see myself spending the rest of my life being a strummer for someone else's dreams. Whatever the opposite of regret is best describes how I've always felt about that decision - it opened me up to a million creative opportunities I needed to experience away from the bullshit and distorting mirrors that fame engenders.
Mark Knopfler / Songwriter
Dream
Jobs
Regret
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