Top 50 Robbie Robertson Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “You fog the mind, you stir the soul.”

— Robbie Robertson

2. “There’s something so healthy about young people speaking up in unity.”

— Robbie Robertson

3. “Everybody grows in their own way.”

— Robbie Robertson

4. “You don’t stumble upon your heritage. It’s there, just waiting to be explored and shared.”

— Robbie Robertson

5. “Give us the strength, give us the wisdom, and give us tomorrow.”

— Robbie Robertson

6. “Say a prayer for the lost generation, who spin the wheel out of desperation.”

— Robbie Robertson

7. “Most of my younger Native American friends are not in any way looking for sympathy, and they’re not looking to lay guilt on anybody. They have their dignity, and they do what they do.”

— Robbie Robertson

8. “I don’t believe it’s all for nothing. It’s not just written in the sand.”

— Robbie Robertson

9. “Confused by the big city blues, he didn’t know who’s life he’s leading. Put yourself behind the wheel, see if you can get that feel.”

— Robbie Robertson

10. “There is an extraordinary collaborative spirit when you are learning and growing.”

— Robbie Robertson

11. “Working on ‘The Last Waltz’ introduced me to Martin Scorsese, and I had been a movie bug since I was a young kid.”

— Robbie Robertson

12. “I don’t like overt traditionalism.”

— Robbie Robertson

13. “You never know what could be interesting tomorrow.”

— Robbie Robertson

14. “Music should never be harmless.”

— Robbie Robertson

15. “If I can play one note and make you cry, then that’s better than those fancy dancers playing twenty notes.”

— Robbie Robertson

16. “We need to have a taste factor in our life. It isn’t about what’s popular; it’s about what’s really good.”

— Robbie Robertson

17. “I admire those old road dogs, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan. That’s their life.”

— Robbie Robertson

18. “Time is not kind to everything.”

— Robbie Robertson

19. “Lord please save his soul, he was the king of rock and roll.”

— Robbie Robertson

20. “The rock concert experience for people was really pretty stupid, you know, at the time. People would go to concerts not with the idea of listening at all.”

— Robbie Robertson

21. “I’ve always been in love with that Delta-flavored music the music that came from Mississippi and Memphis and, especially, New Orleans. When I was 14, I was in a wanna-be New Orleans band in Toronto.”

— Robbie Robertson

22. “The Beatles tried to do some tours and found it to be completely pointless and became a non-touring band after that, and with very good reason.”

— Robbie Robertson

23. “I really have to feel a sense of freedom in my storytelling.”

— Robbie Robertson

24. “Record making is an extraordinary experience.”

— Robbie Robertson

25. “I wanted to develop a guitar style where phrases and lines get there just in the nick of time, like with Curtis Mayfield and Steve Cropper. Subtleties mean so much, and there is a stunning beauty in them.”

— Robbie Robertson

26. “I play guitar quite a bit, because I’m always in search of something. I don’t play to jam, but because I’m fishing. I’m looking for something, that I hope you can never find. If I do find it, I’m afraid I won’t have a need to do this any more.”

— Robbie Robertson

27. “It’s a bit of a sore spot, the Thanksgiving in Indian country.”

— Robbie Robertson

28. “I try not to think the song to death. The main criteria is if it’s working on an emotional level.”

— Robbie Robertson

29. “I think, some countries, you have to be dead to have your picture on a stamp.”

— Robbie Robertson

30. “I’d always thought Cage’s ‘Root of an Unfocus’ would be great in a movie.”

— Robbie Robertson

31. “When I was younger, I thought I was too young to really be personal. I thought that what I was feeling and thinking might be half-baked.”

— Robbie Robertson

32. “People go through periods when things are dark and cloudy, and they talk dark and cloudy.”

— Robbie Robertson

33. “Musical revolutions, I don’t know how many I’ve been through.”

— Robbie Robertson

34. “When I was playing with Bob Dylan in, like, 1966, I was, like, 20 years old.”

— Robbie Robertson

35. “I think the world of Chuck Berry.”

— Robbie Robertson

36. “For years after ‘The Last Waltz,’ I got all kinds of silly movie offers – or, maybe, not silly, but parts that are not my calling lots of offers to play some wonderful boyfriend.”

— Robbie Robertson

37. “When you make a record, your own record, and you don’t even recognize it yourself, it’s hard to think if anybody else is going to recognize.”

— Robbie Robertson

38. “Boy, do I got some stories to tell.”

— Robbie Robertson

39. “It’s extraordinary that revolutions taking place around the world were sparked by communication on the Internet.”

— Robbie Robertson

40. “Some music is supposed to be disposable; that’s OK. A lot of music is fun for today, but it isn’t supposed to be timeless; it’s supposed to be trendy.”

— Robbie Robertson

41. “I’m really lucky because I found myself in a position where I can do whatever I want to do. I can make records, produce records, make movies, or I can do nothing. I’m not a slave to the dollar.”

— Robbie Robertson

42. “I come from a family who prided themselves, both sides, on memory. And I was told growing up, constantly, that I was born with a really good memory.”

— Robbie Robertson

43. “Bob Dylan is as influential as any artist that there has been.”

— Robbie Robertson

44. “Some people love some music, and they hear it a year later and they think, ‘What was I thinking?’”

— Robbie Robertson

45. “I think that there’s always great music being made. Always has been, always will be.”

— Robbie Robertson

46. “At a young age I thought, ‘Wow, that fiddle thing, that’s pretty cool. That mandolin is great. These drums, I like these drums ’ They were Indian drums. And I was saying, ‘But that guitar. That guitar. Girls are going to like that guitar.’”

— Robbie Robertson

47. “I don’t want to be one of those people saying, ‘Remember when things were better?’”

— Robbie Robertson

48. “I love the idea of having a kid who says, ‘Yeah, of course I knew about Billie Holiday and Johnny Cash when I was nine years old.’”

— Robbie Robertson

49. “I like to work on records when I feel inspired, not because it’s expected of me.”

— Robbie Robertson

50. “That whole lifestyle – make a record, do a tour: I know how to do that. It doesn’t interest me.”

— Robbie Robertson