Quotes by Dave Matthews

A rolling stone, that gathers no moss, but leaves a trail of busted stuff.

A guy and a girl can be just friends, but at one point or another, they will fall for each other. Maybe temporarily, maybe at the wrong time, maybe too late, or maybe forever.

I'm a very vicious critic of myself.

I'm from a very politically and socially conscious family. My mother always made a point of making us look at what was going on around us and take stock of our part in it.

Isn't it strange how we move out lives for another day? Like skipping a beat, what if a great wave should wash us all away?

I always like to have an atlas just so that I can find things out. It's always good to have an almanac; those sort of things.

Take these chances Place them in a box until a quieter time Lights down, you up and die.

I say my hell is the closet I'm stuck inside.

The problem is someone will try to convince you

That they know the answer no matter the question

Be wary of those who believe in a neat little world

'Cause it's just ..... crazy -- you know that it is.

Out of the darkness comes light like a flash

You think you can, you think you can

Sometimes that is the problem

Dream little darling dream.

You and me have a better time than most can dream of, better than the best.

Take what you can from your dreams, Make them as real as anything.

Turns out, not where, but who you're with that really matters.

Digging a ditch where madness gives a bit

Digging a ditch where silence lives

Digging a ditch for when I'm old

Digging this ditch my story's told

Where all these troubles weigh down on me will rise .....

Where all these questions spinning round my head will die.

In many instances, we are much better at fixing our mistakes after we've made them. In some situations, it is easier to sweep things under the rug and forget about them.

I'm not a real gadgety person. But bottle opener is probably the gadget I can't live without. Actually, I can open a bottle of beer pretty easily without it, but wine is always too much of a pain in the (rear) to open that up. So a corkscrew is probably the gadget that I can't live without.

First time I kissed you, I lost my legs.

She feels like kicking out all the windows

And setting fire to this life

She could change everything about her using colors bold and bright

But all the colors mix together -- to grey.

The melodies are always the most important part to me. I am pulled more to the groove than the chord progression. After you find the groove, you find the most simple chord progressions and then sit inside that groove.

If at all God's gaze falls upon us all it's with a mischievous grin, look at him.

Could I have been anyone other than me?

I have always been drawn to percussion and drums, to bass and piano, in music much more then I am drawn to the guitar and the other lead instruments.

Nothing is here to stay

Everything has to begin and end

A ship in a bottle won't sail

All we can do is dream that the wind will blow us across the water

A ship in a bottle set sail.

Lying on the roof counting the stars that fill the sky

I wonder if

Someone in the heavens looking back down on me

I'll never know

So much space to believe.

One sweet world Around this star is spinning One sweet world And in her breath I'm swimming And here we will rest in peace.

When I was a kid growing up in New York, I was pretty unaware of racism. I think when we're young -- before we lose our innocence -- we're sort of unaware of the more flawed qualities of each other.

I'm not going to change my ways just to please you, or appease you.

I find a therapy in playing music, in many different ways.

I don't touch electric guitars. It's just not my thing -- I stick with acoustic guitars only.

I grew up in a very politically aware family. My mother always taught me to question everything, never believing anything simply at face value -- especially the nicest, most adamant politicians.

If you hold on tight

to what you think is your thing

you may find you re missing all the rest.

A vote for change is a vote for a stronger, safer, healthier America. A vote for Bush is a vote for a divided, unstable, paranoid America. It is our duty to this beautiful land to let our voices be heard. That's the reason for the tour. That's why I'm doing it.

I don't think socialism, and I don't think warmness and respect are necessarily bad words.

When you can no longer differentiate between the insanity spewed onto the blank page, and the madness evident in the all-but shattered mirror...that's when you know you're doing it right.

Excuse me please, one more drink

Could you make it strong cause I don't need to think

She broke my heart, my grace is gone

One more drink and I'll move on.

The brightest star on a cloudless night

Some kind of miracle, almost empty sky...

Just as the bite of the blade wakes the absent mind

There's time to dream and there's time to open your eyes.

Well, I've been in a few car wrecks.

Troubles, they may come and go, but good times, they're the gold.

Part of me wishes some of the more obsessive fans would spend a fraction of the time they spend studying the band.

If I go

Before I'm old

Oh, brother of mine

Please don't forget me if I go

Bartender, please

Fill my glass for me

With the wine you gave Jesus that set him free

After three days in the ground.

I feel that I have worked my whole life to get to the point where I should have a good understanding of women.

Are you looking for answers, to questions under the stars? If along the way you are growing weary, You can rest with me until a brighter day It's okay.

I'm glad some people have that faith. I don't have that faith. If there is a God, a caring God, then we have to figure he's done an extraordinary job of making a very cruel world.

I am who I am who I am who am I Requesting some enlightenment Could I have been anyone other than me?

I believe in love, but believe it's love that keeps beating me down.

For a moment this good time would never end

You and me

Just wasting time

I was kissing you

You were kissing me love

From good day into a moonlight.

I see you young and soft oh little baby

Little feet, little hands, little baby

One year of crying and the words creep up inside

Creep into your mind

So much to say.

Move into kiss those sweet sugar lips, baby looks just like love.

A dream is a massive magic trick of the mind. No amount of science could explain away the mysterious wonder.

We spend a lot of time bickering at great cost, and very little time actually coming up with solutions. And I think we misuse our ambition for our own gains and rarely for the betterment of ourselves, and people around us and our environment. And I think that's sort of pathetic and desperate.

Satellite in my eyes

Like a diamond in the sky

How I wonder

Satellite strung from the moon

And the world your balloon

Peeping Tom for the mother station.

So I watched the Pink Panther last night, and so I'm trying desperately to be funny, and then it's just not working out so good... I wonder if maybe I could've been a comedian or something like that, or maybe I could've been a doctor, then I wouldn't have to make anyone laugh.

People in every direction

No words exchanged

No time to exchange

And all the little ants are marching

Red and black antennas waving

They all do it the same

We all do it the same way.

The moon is quite a show off given the chance. The stars make a sound when they shine so bright. Water so blue and so black.

Because life is short but sweet for certain.

Sitting still as stone watching -- watching

People walking by you wondering why

No one ever stops to talk or thinks about it -- if they ever did.

Six senses keeping

Five around a sense of self.

But then there are magical, beautiful things in the world, and there's incredible acts of kindness and bravery and in the most unlikely places, and it gives you hope.

Look, Here are we, On this starry night staring into space, And I must say, I feel as small as dust, Lying down here.

It's a melting pot, southern Africa. You find these cultural collisions that result in art and music, and it's pretty amazing.

I walk into this room

All eyes on me now

But I do not know the people inside

Look straight through me these eyes

Seeking more wisdom

Than I have to give away.

Would you not like to be, sittin' on top of the world with your legs hanging free?

I'll be back 'round again, yes, I'll walk in time with you, old friend. And we'll find that place that we had danced in so long ago.

And when you wake, you will fly away, holding tight to the legs of all your angels. Goodbye, my love, into your blue, blue eyes.

I've always been obsessed by visual art as I have been by music personally, but that doesn't mean anything professionally.

I don't want to die, obviously, but really, the wonder of life is amplified by the fact that it ends.

Dark clouds may hang on me sometimes, but I'll work it out.

Funny the way it is, not right or wrong, somebody's heart is broken, and it becomes your favorite song.

Just knowing that the world is round

Here I'm dancing on the ground

Am I right side up or upside down?

Is this real or am I dreaming?

I like to think I'm a night person, because that's my job, but now I'm a father of three. I'm trying to become more of a morning person. I don't know if it will last. I have two choices, right? Either I'm bitter about getting up early, or I start drinking wine earlier and get to bed.

I hope that just what I sing about and how I relate to my audience is as much of a political statement as I need to make.

Would you like to play With the thought of a friend In a distant passing stage While you lie around With your hands up and out So resigned you will fall down.

People are not very pro-active in general, I think, because we are too busy rushing blindly towards our own goals.

I swear by now I'm playing time against my troubles I'm coming slow but speeding.

Being a white South African, I enjoyed the better things that that country gave to a small percentage of its population.

I think some people would say that I do overwhelm the words with the music, and sometimes thank goodness I do.

Yorke's lyrics make me want to give up. I could never in my wildest dreams find something as beautiful as they find for a single song -- let alone album

after album.

So the story goes, so I'm told

The people he knew were

Less than golden hearted

Gamblers and robbers

Drinkers and jokers, all soul searchers

Like you and me.

I go back to South Africa at least once a year, sometimes twice, and usually for a month. And probably, I'm guessing, I'll spend more time back there as I get older.

Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we'll die.

Goodnight moon. Sweet dreams. Smile kindly upon this little blue gum ball of us while we sleep.

Life goes on, end of tunnel, TV set

Spot in the middle

Static fade, statistic bit

And soon I fade away, fade away.

It is criminal to put our servicemen and women in harm's way and to put the lives of so many civilians on the line for the misguided frustrations of the Bush administration.

You wear nothing but you wear it so well.

I was regularly advised not to go into music, that I should give up that foolish dream.

When I write the set, I try to create something that will not only be interesting for the audience, but will have a flow for the band, too, so we don't get boring.

We look to our leaders once we elect them to either lead us in the right direction or at least not crush us.

I think I am a very kind person. I think I'm joyful, but I could be kinder and I could be more joyful. I do believe peace is a state of grace, and not the absence of violence.

The idea that we're somehow centrally important to the planet's existence is pretty comical -- although I'd like us to be.

There's war -- there's always been war, as long as most of us have been alive. There have always been people being abused, there's always been horrible things in the world. Why are we outraged? We should just be quiet and figure it out, and work it out together.

I want to figure out a way to not be stupid with money, then make a whole bunch of it, then I want to move to Outer Mongolia. I want to milk a yak. Maybe I'll just settle for a cow. Can you milk a bison?

I found there's a fairly blatant racism in America that's already there, and I don't think I noticed it when I lived here as a kid. But when I went back to South Africa, and then it's sort of thrust in your face, and then came back here -- I just see it everywhere.

I definitely like the oddballs. There's a song called 'Little Thing,' which is the only song that I have recorded that has no words. And it's the one that I get past my critic inside me.