Top 50 Brian Wilson Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “I’m not a genius. I’m just a hard-working guy.”

— Brian Wilson

2. “I listen to oldies but goodies stations, ’60s and ’70s music.”

— Brian Wilson

3. “I’m happy; I’m a happy person.”

— Brian Wilson

4. “I believe that music is God’s voice.”

— Brian Wilson

5. “Love and mercy that’s what you need tonight. Love and mercy to you and your friends tonight.”

— Brian Wilson

6. “I’m just a shy and retreating kind of person. Sometimes I get in a real talkative mood – but not very often.”

— Brian Wilson

7. “I have auditory hallucinations, I hear voices saying derogatory things, like I’m terrible and I’m going to die, and they’re usually worse in the afternoon.”

— Brian Wilson

8. “Summer means happy times and good sunshine. It means going to the beach, going to Disneyland, having fun.”

— Brian Wilson

9. “I hate those old falsettos, I really do, and it’s embarrassing since I’ve grown up.”

— Brian Wilson

10. “I earned my famous name.”

— Brian Wilson

11. “I’ve never written one note or word of music simply because I think it will make money.”

— Brian Wilson

12. “Every now and then I hear voices in my head, but not very clear. I can’t understand what they are saying. It’s a mental illness. I have been diagnosed as a manic depressive.”

— Brian Wilson

13. “I think about God, yes, and I wonder if there is a God. And if there is a God, will God please help me through my hard trips.”

— Brian Wilson

14. “You say how you feel, and songs don’t lie. Songs are the most honest form of human expression there is – there’s nothing that lies about a song.”

— Brian Wilson

15. “You know Chuck, Buddy, and Elvis paved the road. The roots are deep inside us, it’s the rhythm in our soul.”

— Brian Wilson

16. “I think in terms of emotions. And feelings. So sometimes what I say may not always be clear. But creatively, there’s a lot to be said for that way of thinking.”

— Brian Wilson

17. “I wanted to emulate Bob Flanagan, the high voice in the ‘Four Freshmen.’ I wanted to sing high like he did.”

— Brian Wilson

18. “Being single is like liking a Phil Spector record.”

— Brian Wilson

19. “Chuck Norris has been known to throw a baseball 100 mph. I’ve been known to throw Chuck Norris 100 mph.”

— Brian Wilson

20. “I wake up in the morning and I say ‘Ahh! Today’s the day for a song! I’m going to write a song today!’ And I do. I write a song.”

— Brian Wilson

21. “I still believe that something is right only when it feels right.”

— Brian Wilson

22. “The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Phil Spector. Those were my idols.”

— Brian Wilson

23. “I consider myself to be a crusader of love. I try to spread love around the world as best I can because I know I have a handle on love.”

— Brian Wilson

24. “Freedom and Liberty cannot exist without Individual Responsibilty. Failure to exercise Individual Responsibilty forfeits your right to self-governance and delivers it to Government which, through force, will set the parameters of your life.”

— Brian Wilson

25. “I met Paul in 1967, Ringo in 1985, and I saw George Harrison in a nightclub somewhere in L. A. I never met John.”

— Brian Wilson

26. “I play piano all the time. I’m always at my piano, playing music.”

— Brian Wilson

27. “I approach my music-making as an art-form – something pure from the spirit to which I can add dynamics and marketable reality. Music is genuine and healthy and the stimulation I get from molding it and adding dynamics is like nothing else on earth.”

— Brian Wilson

28. “Surfing music is dead. It was just a summer craze for kids on the beach. I’m finished with it.”

— Brian Wilson

29. “I sit and I write automatically. I don’t really try to write. My subconscious mind takes over and writes the songs for me. Songs come very easily for me. When I’m inspired, it takes me 20 minutes to write a song.”

— Brian Wilson

30. “Humor – it helps to make the vibe better – it loosens up the vibrations.”

— Brian Wilson

31. “I meditate and I also think about meditation. Which is funny. I think about Maharishi, about just the idea of meditating. It gives me something.”

— Brian Wilson

32. “I have stage fright every single concert I’ve ever done. I have at least four or five minutes of it. It’s absolute living hell.”

— Brian Wilson

33. “If there’s not love present, it’s much, much harder to function. When there’s love present, it’s easier to deal with life.”

— Brian Wilson

34. “You’re called a genius by people, and then your whole life you become the part.”

— Brian Wilson

35. “You don’t really know what to believe until the Government denies it.”

— Brian Wilson

36. “I like the piano – I’m always about 15 feet away from a piano.”

— Brian Wilson

37. “I think cursing is a bunch of malarkey.”

— Brian Wilson

38. “Any article’s good. Long as it’s publicity, I think that’s all that matters. I think it’s advancement for my career.”

— Brian Wilson

39. “All of the artists did such a beautiful job I can’t thank them enough. I’m just honored that God Only Knows was chosen. God Only Knows is a very special song. An extremely spiritual song and one of the best I’ve ever written.”

— Brian Wilson

40. “People are beautiful. Life can be, too.”

— Brian Wilson

41. “Gershwin inspired me very much. The concept of ‘That Lucky Old Sun’ was inspired by ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ – not influenced, but inspired.”

— Brian Wilson

42. “I’m doing good. I’ve had a slight nervous breakdown in the ’60s. I got through that. And I got through the ’70s. And I was in a doctor’s program during the ’80s and then I met Melinda and we’ve been together ever since. I’ve got a happy life.”

— Brian Wilson

43. “I always do get a little bit paranoid when I get a lot of attention. But I get used to it.”

— Brian Wilson

44. “If you’re going to write a song, try to get together with a collaborator because it’s better to write with collaborators.”

— Brian Wilson

45. “In my sixties I did what I couldn’t do in my twenties.”

— Brian Wilson

46. “I was very, very financially secure my whole life. I have been very lucky to say that.”

— Brian Wilson

47. “So it’s 1976 and we’re still riding on our past success. I mean I’ve gone on like that for I don’t know how long.”

— Brian Wilson

48. “I get off on hearing other people’s voices. I like voices: they’re my favourite things on records.”

— Brian Wilson

49. “I can write songs, I’ve had songs in movies, but I can’t compose film scores, you know?”

— Brian Wilson

50. “I have an instinct for music, or a feeling about it, and I’ll have my feelings guide my hands.”

— Brian Wilson