Quotes by Tom Petty

“I've learned one thing, and that's to quit worrying about stupid things. You have four years to be irresponsible here, relax. Work is for people with jobs. You'll never remember class time, but you...”

“Excuse me if I have/some place in my mind/where I go time to time.”

“I'm old enough to have lived in a country where, if you were willing to work hard, you could have a fairly nice life. You could support your family, and even get a shot at owning your own home. But...”

“Well I won't back downNo I won't back downYou can stand me up at the gates of hellBut I won't back down”

“Go after what you really love and find a way to make that work for you, and then you'll be a happy person.”

“I love history, doesn't matter what era, I'm fascinated.”

“When I decided to be a musician I reckoned that that was going to be the way of less profit, less money. I was sort of giving up the idea of making a lot of money. It was what I loved to do. I woul...”

“Making a record? You've got to have the song, then you create a record. I think it's the same with a live performance. If the material is strong, you're already 90% there. I always tell young peopl...”

“Music is probably the only real magic I have encountered in my life. There's not some trick involved with it. It's pure and it's real. It moves, it heals, it communicates and does all these incredi...”

“It's funny how the music industry is enraged about the Internet and the way things are copied without being paid for. But you know why people steal the music? Because they can't afford the music.”

“I don't know, my music has always just come from where the wind blew me. Like where I'm at during a particular moment in time.”

“It's very easy to be cynical about the hall of fame. But on the other hand, it's really a beautiful thing for someone like me. I dedicated my entire life to this music.”

“I developed a problem with authority. Any time that authority was what I interpreted as being unjust, I stood up to it, and that became my personality.”

“The first time I tried to write was when I was 14, after I got an electric guitar. I put a song together, and it wasn't that bad! The writing came natural to me.”

“The great thing about the Wilburys was that none of us had to take the heat by ourselves. I was just a member of the band. Nobody felt like he was above anybody else. We had such a good time.”

“'Free Fallin' is a very good song. Maybe it would be one of my favorites if it hadn't become this huge anthem. But I'm grateful that people like it.”

“I tend to write on an acoustic guitar or the piano. I have kind of a rule: if I can't sit down and play this and get the song over, I don't take it to the band, because most any good song, you can ...”

“TV does not care about you or what happens to you. It's downright bad for your health now, and that's not a far-out concept. I think watching the TV news is bad for you. It is bad for your physical...”

“When you get older, your health becomes important to you, things start breaking down, you've always got a different ache or pain.”

“What I've learned about marriage: You need to have each other's back you have to be a kind of team going through life. ”