Top 100 Eric Clapton Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “I know there will be no more tears in heaven.”

— Eric Clapton

2. “Would you know my name, if I saw you in Heaven?”

— Eric Clapton

3. “Plant your love and let it grow.”

— Eric Clapton

4. “I’m an egomaniac with an inferiority complex.”

— Eric Clapton

5. “All along this path I tread, my heart betrays my weary head, with nothing but my love to save, from the cradle to the grave...”

— Eric Clapton

6. “You can’t mastermind everything. You’ll go crazy. Just show up and play.”

— Eric Clapton

7. “Music survives everything, and like God, it is always present. It needs no help, and suffers no hindrance.”

— Eric Clapton

8. “I feel wonderful because I see the love light in your eyes, and the wonder of it all is you just don’t realize how much I love you.”

— Eric Clapton

9. “Time can bring you down, time can bend your knees.”

— Eric Clapton

10. “Before you accuse me, take a look at yourself.”

— Eric Clapton

11. “One of the most beneficial things I’ve ever learned is how to keep my mouth shut.”

— Eric Clapton

12. “I am, and always will be, a blues guitarist.”

— Eric Clapton

13. “For me, the most trustworthy vehicle for spirituality had always proven to be music.”

— Eric Clapton

14. “I got a problem, can you relate? I got a woman calling love hate.”

— Eric Clapton

15. “Our love will rule in this kingdom we have made.”

— Eric Clapton

16. “Music became a healer for me. And I learned to listen with all my being. I found that it could wipe away all fear and confusion...”

— Eric Clapton

17. “Every time you pick up your guitar to play, play as if it’s the last time.”

— Eric Clapton

18. “I like solitude. I like the anomalous life. I like a quiet life.”

— Eric Clapton

19. “An obsession is where something will not leave your mind.”

— Eric Clapton

20. “Music became a healer for me.”

— Eric Clapton

21. “Given the choice between accomplishing something and just lying around, I’d rather lie around. No contest.”

— Eric Clapton

22. “My driving philosophy about making music is that you can reduce it all down to one note if that note is played with the right kind of sincerity.”

— Eric Clapton

23. “Lately I’ve been running on faith.”

— Eric Clapton

24. “If you hand me a guitar, I’ll play the blues. That’s the place I automatically go.”

— Eric Clapton

25. “Like a fool, I fell in love with you, Turned my whole world upside down.”

— Eric Clapton

26. “In my lowest moments, the only reason I didn’t commit suicide was that I knew I wouldn’t be able to drink any more if I was dead.”

— Eric Clapton

27. “Risk is trying to control something you are powerless over.”

— Eric Clapton

28. “There’s a desire in me to express something – to match what I hear in my head.”

— Eric Clapton

29. “I’m not a big fan of lead vocalists, people who sing but don’t play. I never wanted to be in a band where the guy who was up front just sang. I’ve always thought it better when one of the musicians sings, like Steve Winwood.”

— Eric Clapton

30. “I sought my father in the world of the black musician, because it contained wisdom, experience, sadness and loneliness. I was not ever interested in the music of boys. From my youngest years, I was interested in the music of men.”

— Eric Clapton

31. “Give me a guitar and I’ll play; give me a stage and I’ll perform; give me an auditorium and I’ll fill it.”

— Eric Clapton

32. “Well, I think part of my gift, or if I have one, is that I love listening.”

— Eric Clapton

33. “I admire Eddie Van Halen and Steve Lukather, but they might blow me away quite easily if we were to jam together.”

— Eric Clapton

34. “I thought, ‘My God, this is like Buddy Guy on acid.’”

— Eric Clapton

35. “I couldn’t believe how good Jimi Hendrix was It was a really difficult thing for me to deal with, but I just had to surrender and say, ‘This is fantastic.’”

— Eric Clapton

36. “When I’m wrong it’s never meant for you, so don’t confuse my love with what I do.”

— Eric Clapton

37. “I think everybody has their own way of looking at their lives as some kind of pilgrimage. Some people will see their role as a pilgrim in terms of setting up a fine family, or establishing a business inheritance. Everyone’s got their own definition.”

— Eric Clapton

38. “For me there is something primitively soothing about this music, and it went straight to my nervous system, making me feel ten feet tall.”

— Eric Clapton

39. “The blues are what I’ve turned to, what has given me inspiration and relief in all the trials of my life.”

— Eric Clapton

40. “All I am certain of right now is that I don’t want to go anywhere, and that’s not bad for someone who always used to run.”

— Eric Clapton

41. “And I don’t like having my picture taken. I’m almost like an old African in that sense. I think it steals a bit of the soul.”

— Eric Clapton

42. “Only ask and you will get what you are needing, the rest is up to you.”

— Eric Clapton

43. “I never set myself too high a goal. It was always tone and feeling, for me.”

— Eric Clapton

44. “The point of being at home is to be with my family as much as possible.”

— Eric Clapton

45. “I did play a lot of fingerstyle when I first started playing. I could never really find the right combination of flatpick or fingerpick, so playing fingerstyle is really the easiest way – though it’s quite strenuous on the fingertips.”

— Eric Clapton

46. “It’s been up to me to inspire me.”

— Eric Clapton

47. “I wish I could write easily. I’m one of those guys who’s visited by the muse when things are dire.”

— Eric Clapton

48. “I often enjoy singing in an acoustic setting more than an amplified one.”

— Eric Clapton

49. “Having lovers and friends is all good and fine But I don’t like yours and you don’t like mine.”

— Eric Clapton

50. “I saw you walking with your other man today. If I catch you one more time, I’m gonna blow you both away.”

— Eric Clapton