Steven Van Zandt Quotes

Being a rock n' roll star ain't a part-time gig.

- Steven Van Zandt

First of all, just because the Tea Party people appear to be generally uneducated, ignorant about the political process, ignorant about economics, confused about their own platform from the beginning, and indelicate when it comes to the craft of diplomacy, doesn't mean they're wrong.

- Steven Van Zandt

Rock n' roll as a genre is different from pop and hip hop: it is about bands, and that for me suggests brotherhood, family, friendship and community.

- Steven Van Zandt

In 'The Sopranos,' these guys know their best years are behind them. They have nostalgia for their old traditions. In their minds, they're looking for a time when loyalty mattered, community mattered. E Street is about community, too. People are looking for something real.

- Steven Van Zandt

I did 10 years on 'Sopranos,' but the whole craft of acting is relatively new to me. I'm still learning that, and I'll be learning that forever.

- Steven Van Zandt

'Sopranos' was a fascinating moment, just catching our whole culture by surprise, a fun ride to be on while I'm learning the craft.

- Steven Van Zandt

I'm very, very proud to have been at what I feel are two of the pivotal moments in this whole new Golden Era of television - one being 'The Sopranos' with HBO and now with Netflix expanding that whole HBO concept to the world and making it more of a global thing. It's been wonderful to witness that from those two vantage points.

- Steven Van Zandt

I was very lucky with 'The Sopranos.'

- Steven Van Zandt

I am interested in the interaction of a group of people who have a common goal, or a common obsession, each contributing something unique to make something greater than the sum of its parts. I don't know why, but from day one, that has interested me.

- Steven Van Zandt

They legislate fatherhood in Norway. It's not an option. That's a shocking thing to us in America.

- Steven Van Zandt

Garage rock is music for older people with young souls and young people with old souls. It's a certain sensibility, and you may have it when you're 17 or when you're 67.

- Steven Van Zandt

There is an established tradition of actors directing films that have a particular, personal meaning for them - Warren Beatty, Clint Eastwood, Kevin Costner, and most recently George Clooney to name a few. Remarkably, their films share an unusually high percentage of being very good.

- Steven Van Zandt

Band members have a special bond. A great band is more than just some people working together. It's like a highly specialized army unit, or a winning sports team. A unique combination of elements that becomes stronger together than apart.

- Steven Van Zandt

My mother remarried when I was young, and my stepfather adopted me.

- Steven Van Zandt

C-17s should be ready to go at various military bases around the world packed with water, food, medical supplies, sleeping bags and tents, all prepared to be air dropped in alongside soldiers and doctors to begin relief efforts.

- Steven Van Zandt

I was deep into it - worldwide liberation politics as well as domestic - but by the end of the '80s, I had decided it all comes down to one single issue: campaign-finance elimination.

- Steven Van Zandt

Little Richard opens his mouth, and out comes liberation.

- Steven Van Zandt

I did nothing but international liberation politics for ten years, and usually it was like, you gain an inch, you lose a half an inch. It's slow going, man.

- Steven Van Zandt

As most of the population suffers through life, barely surviving, disappointed and confused day after day, hopeless, wondering what happened to their strong and beautiful country, it is in the media's power to restore, if not some of our quality of life, at least a bit of our peace of mind.

- Steven Van Zandt

The simple fact is we do not live in a democracy. Certainly not the kind our Founding Fathers intended. We live in a corporate dictatorship represented by, and beholden to, no single human being you can reason with or hold responsible for anything.

- Steven Van Zandt

Once Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings are not cool on country radio, it's time for a new format.

- Steven Van Zandt

Before Dylan, before rock became art, it was a wonderful fusion of pop structure and personal statements.

- Steven Van Zandt

Half of the modern world goes back as far as Pearl Jam. The real historians go back to U2. But they need to go back further. They have to go back to the '50s and '60s, where things started. That's how you get to be your own personality, by studying the masters. Rock and roll was white kids trying to make black music and failing, gloriously!

- Steven Van Zandt

I was a gambler when I was a kid, so when we got to Las Vegas, it was like Mecca.

- Steven Van Zandt

Within three hours of a disaster event there should be a recon damage assessment of the infrastructure and an educated guess as to the casualties and degree of imminent human peril. Then make the airdrops of supplies and personnel. Simultaneously, Seabees would be dropped in, with lights and generators, to begin rescue efforts.

- Steven Van Zandt

It ain't passive. It ain't TV. Go out there and rock n' roll and dance and have fun.

- Steven Van Zandt

For me, making a record is a vacation. I'd like to do it more often. Just, chances are impossible... It's a very expensive hobby, you know?

- Steven Van Zandt

The quality of our lives is diminished every time we lose a great artist. It's a different world without Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Curtis Mayfield, Brian Jones and the rest.

- Steven Van Zandt

I had the wonderful good luck of having Jimmy Gandolfini as my mentor and David Chase as my godfather, two of the most talented guys in the history of television.

- Steven Van Zandt

Where do I begin with 'The Godfather?' It's like explaining why the 'Bible' is so popular. I'll always remember seeing the first one because it was the only time I went to the movies with my grandfather.

- Steven Van Zandt

Your celebrity capital rises and falls in any given year. And when you have some - temporarily, usually - you try to use it for some good.

- Steven Van Zandt

Stevie Van Zandt could not walk on to a set and act. I don't know how actors do that! It's the scariest thing in the world.

- Steven Van Zandt

I've always had a reluctance to meet my heroes.

- Steven Van Zandt

Like most people, I've always felt using words like 'best' when applied to art is a fun way for critics to stay busy at the end of the year, and I guess a good way to help get ratings for awards shows, which is fine.

- Steven Van Zandt

A lot of the idealism of the Sixties was spot on, from the environmentalism to the war to the Civil Rights movement, the women's rights movement, you name it.

- Steven Van Zandt

Every successful person needs to have at least one person in their life who's not afraid of them.

- Steven Van Zandt

What the world needs is an Emergency Boss. An Emergency Czar. An Emergency Commander. A true Master Of Disaster. One person completely responsible for the anticipation, immediate reconnaissance, and urgent execution of rescue and relief efforts around the world.

- Steven Van Zandt

Rock n' roll is our religion, and we will continue to lose disciples as we go, but we pick up the fallen flag and keep moving forward, bringing forth the good news that our heroes have helped create, their bodies lost, but their spirits and their good work everlasting.

- Steven Van Zandt

This conversation with the audience has been going on since, what, '72, '73... Sometimes it's like a conversation after dinner with friends. You're in a restaurant, and you got there at 8 o'clock. Suddenly, you realize it's midnight. Where did the time go? You're enjoying the conversation. It's sort of a natural, organic conversation.

- Steven Van Zandt

You want everybody to like your work, but when you look at what's fashionable or trendy, it's pretty obvious that I don't exactly fit.

- Steven Van Zandt

I think I'm one of the few people who have experienced New Jersey becoming fashionable twice in a lifetime.

- Steven Van Zandt

Sometimes there's no qualitative difference between two-and-a-half and three-and-a-half hour shows. It's just a matter of how long you do it. It's not like the show must be three hours and 30 minutes to work. That's just not the case.

- Steven Van Zandt

Believe me, if Donald Trump didn't have some point that he's making, hitting home with people, he could not have come this far - as much as a showman as he may be.

- Steven Van Zandt

I learned a lot from Bruce Springsteen and David Chase.

- Steven Van Zandt

Timing really is nearly everything. And what it isn't, circumstance makes up for.

- Steven Van Zandt

The rock era, as I clock it, went from '65 to '94, from 'Like a Rolling Stone' to Kurt Cobain's death.

- Steven Van Zandt

Let the wealthier countries and corporations of the world fund an Emergency Organization.

- Steven Van Zandt

When I was younger, I went through the windshield of a car ,and my hair didn't grow back right. I had been wearing scarves occasionally, and I decided that I didn't want to deal with wigs and things, so I just stumbled onto my thing.

- Steven Van Zandt

Politics, in general, when you're trying to change the world for the better in any kind of way, no matter how small or how big, it's inches.

- Steven Van Zandt

As an actor just learning the craft, you literally do a scene with Jimmy Gandolfini, and you walk away a better actor.

- Steven Van Zandt

Young fans want to know about the past and older fans also want to find new music.

- Steven Van Zandt

I just love that whole Brill Building era. I will always regret not being there. That's where I belong.

- Steven Van Zandt

'Soulfire' is a collection of stuff I've done in the past. Each song is an element of who I am: There's a doo-wop song on the album; a blues song, R&B and some jazz. For people who are going to be hearing me for the first time, it's an introduction to who I am.

- Steven Van Zandt

I'm always surprised when a sequel is not as good or better than the first one. I never understand that. You've already set your own bar. You've already done the hard work. It should be easier to make the second one, but a lot of the times, it's not.

- Steven Van Zandt

Little Steven - the songwriter, producer, and arranger - stayed alive doing the 'Lilyhammer' score. That pretty much took up three or four years of my life, and all of my musical energy went into that.

- Steven Van Zandt

People want to learn how other people live. It's just human nature.

- Steven Van Zandt

You think your congressman is working all day to get you a job? He may want to. He or she is probably not a bad person. They probably want to do the right thing. But they can't.

- Steven Van Zandt

I was obsessed with politics in the '80s. I've recovered and I'm feeling much better now, thank you.

- Steven Van Zandt

You ask people to fall in love with you. To need you. To want you. To buy your records and come see you. You have an emotional contract with people. To break up is to violate that contract.

- Steven Van Zandt

Netflix completely shook up the world.

- Steven Van Zandt

The only reason why I made solo records was because I got so obsessed with politics, and that is quite personal. I don't really philosophically believe in solo records.

- Steven Van Zandt

I am Italian. Springsteen's mostly Italian, too. We're both Italians with Dutch names, one of the many things we have in common.

- Steven Van Zandt

There are... certainly more innovations on 'Revolver'... but the truth of the matter is 'Sgt. Pepper' has something that was just completely different and unique at that moment.

- Steven Van Zandt

I believe that hundreds of years from now, history will be divided into pre-1960s and post-1960s.

- Steven Van Zandt

I grew up in a renaissance period, a very lucky time when the greatest music ever made was also the most commercial. We'll never see that again, so for me, there's only one criteria, which is greatness. That's all I care about. Is what I'm doing reaching for greatness? Whether I achieve it or not, that is one hundred percent of my criteria.

- Steven Van Zandt

You can trace the E Street Band directly back to the Rascals.

- Steven Van Zandt

I've always been very thematic with my work, very conceptual.

- Steven Van Zandt

The British invasion was the most important event of my life. I was in New Jersey and the night I saw the Beatles changed everything. I had seen Elvis before and he had done nothing for me, but these guys were in a band.

- Steven Van Zandt

Reach for greatness, nothing less. And make sure you have some fun along the way.

- Steven Van Zandt

Part of the job of being a producer is the Vulcan mind meld, where you listen not to what they're saying but what they mean.

- Steven Van Zandt

You're either on the Republican team or the Democratic team, and all that matters is that your team wins. Judging by history, regardless of which team wins, the people always lose.

- Steven Van Zandt

For those who are familiar with my work, 'Soulfire' is a return to how most people identify me, which is that soul-meets-rock thing.

- Steven Van Zandt

In my mind, it's always easier to do a sequel than an original.

- Steven Van Zandt

The Rascals are something else. They're up there with the Beatles, and Stones and Byrds. That level of musicality. They have a real chemistry. It is like magic.

- Steven Van Zandt

I met all my heroes on the oldies circuit: Gary U.S. Bonds, Lloyd Price, Little Richard.

- Steven Van Zandt

I'll never understand why people somehow support pollution. It's completely irrational, and I don't get it. Somewhere along the line, they bought into this fiction that one has to choose between the environment and business, which is just a complete falsehood and absurd.

- Steven Van Zandt

Primal Scream could be the biggest band in the world. They are fantastic when they make rock records - once every 10 years.

- Steven Van Zandt

I learned everything I know from leaving the E Street Band. And of course, one of the things I learned is, I never should have left.

- Steven Van Zandt

I played around with the idea of touring with a soul revue, with Smokey Robinson, Sam Moore, Darlene Love, people like that.

- Steven Van Zandt

It's a challenge every year with a TV series. You want to keep evolving and keep it going. That's part of the fun.

- Steven Van Zandt

I'm a real band guy, you know? I'm really good at certain things, and the band stuff is one of them.

- Steven Van Zandt

I know what it takes to make a band, how they should interact, what makes a record sound like it's a band - everything having to do with a band, I happen to be into.

- Steven Van Zandt

I tell everybody, if you've got a band that works, it's a miracle. It's never going to be perfect, but if it works on some level, hold on to it with both hands and don't ever let it go.

- Steven Van Zandt

Go out and support your local rock n' roll band.

- Steven Van Zandt

The River,' to me, meant 43 songs.

- Steven Van Zandt

It's so liberating to play a song in front of 50,000 people that you've never played before. Not something you played a long time ago and have forgotten: Never. Played. Before. There's something magical about it.

- Steven Van Zandt

I need a big picture. I can't just do a collection of songs; that doesn't work for me.

- Steven Van Zandt

I tried to get Primal Scream to come over to America several times.

- Steven Van Zandt

The energy that comes when you compel people to dance stays with you your whole career - whether you are playing to 100,000 people at Glastonbury or 1,000 kids in a club.

- Steven Van Zandt

'Born to Run' was a mixture of things but mostly about youth and fantasies.

- Steven Van Zandt

Boycotts are not something to be taken lightly.

- Steven Van Zandt

To walk into a studio, for me, is just like walking onto a beach or something.

- Steven Van Zandt

It's become uncool to play other people's songs, and that's absurd. It has got to change. It's the reason why everything's so mediocre.

- Steven Van Zandt

I've always considered the government taking one out of every two dollars I earn absolute tyranny.

- Steven Van Zandt

Bands should never break up.

- Steven Van Zandt

My father was an ex-Marine Goldwater Republican.

- Steven Van Zandt

For me, it all comes down to one issue: if we can get money out of political systems, the whole world will change.

- Steven Van Zandt

I tend to personally judge issue by issue rather than sort of endorsing this football-team mentality that we fall into in this country, where it's all about the team.

- Steven Van Zandt

Rock n' roll is a participatory sport.

- Steven Van Zandt

The first rule of rock and roll is it's all about live. Then you have to learn a second craft, which is making records. It should go in that order.

- Steven Van Zandt

My lifelong friend and mentor Frank Barsalona is gone. And the music business as we knew it went with him.

- Steven Van Zandt

Let's not pretend we have too much of a democracy here, because we don't.

- Steven Van Zandt

I was 100 percent political in the '80s - the first time around, let's call it, my first life as an artist.

- Steven Van Zandt

Life should never be boring.

- Steven Van Zandt

I don't wake up every day and just write to write. I only write with purpose.

- Steven Van Zandt

I didn't care about anything expect rock & roll. So it's nice that it turned out to be something that you find a way to make a living from.

- Steven Van Zandt

I have very little interest in the modern world, and I'm not in any way conflicted about that.

- Steven Van Zandt