Quotes by Jimmy Buffett

Go fast enough to get there, but slow enough to see.

Maybe there is another who sees life not as a flickering candle but as a torch that can illuminate an undiscovered world.

One of the inescapable encumbrances of leading an interesting life is that there have to be moments when you almost lose it.

Humor has bailed me out of more tight situations than I can think of. If you go with your instincts and keep your humor, creativity follows. With luck, success comes, too.

There's no 'dumb-ass' vaccine.

It's so god damn cold it's gonna snow until June.

If there's a heaven for me, I'm sure it has a beach attached to it.

Miyama hotel disco bar
He asks if she's a movie star
Her eyes light up they're going far
No time for a room -- it happened too soon
Now they're makin' love in her rent-a-car.

Any attempts at autobiography before the age of eighty seem pretty self-involved to me. There are a lot of smart middle aged people but not many wise ones.

Is it ignorance or apathy, I forget the lessons taught to me.

Cheeseburger in paradise!

When they tried to draft me, I earned a college degree.

I sell escapism.

Without geography you're nowhere.

Find yourself a lover who will glue you to the floor.

It's not the tales of Stephen King that I've read,
I need protection from the things in my head.

It takes just as little time to see the positive side of life as it does the negative side.

We made it nearly 20 centuries, a bunch of monkeys with PH Ds.

I know a girl made of memories and phrases, lives her whole life in chapters and phases.

You are your own best teacher. ~Jimmy Buffett.

It is an eternal truth in the political as well as the mystical body, that where one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.

Yes, I am a pirate two hundred years too late.

Gluttony, do not eat thy neighbor's wife's popcorn.

I know I should be leaving this climate, I've got a verse, but can't rhyme it.

If the phone doesn't ring, it's me.

There's a strange sense of pleasure being beat to hell by a storm when you're on a ship that is not going to sink.

I'm getting old, don't wear underwear, and I don't go to church.

What if life is just a cosmic joke, like spiders in your underwear.

I'd rather die while I'm living than live while I'm dead.

The beautiful people in the magazines, got the normal ones living beyond their means.

I can't fax you my love, I can't email my heart.

I ain't no drinking man, but temptation got the best of me.

Life was just a tire swing. 'Jambalaya' was the only song I could sing. Blackberry pickin', eatin' fried chicken, And I never knew a thing about pain. Life was just a tire swing.

There will always be those who feel more comfortable not venturing from the warmth of the hearth, but there are those who prefer to look out the window and wonder what is beyond the horizon.

This morning I shot six holes in my freezer. I think I've got cabin fever.

We're just recycled history machines, cavemen in faded blue jeans.

And there's that one particular harbor Sheltered from the wind Where the children play on the shore each day And all are safe within.

Love is a wave building to a crescendo. Ride if you will, ride it with me.

Bryl-cream, a little dab will do you.

There's damsels in distress out there, and we got all this beer.

Yeah. I wouldn't do it if it wasn't fun... We're showing people how, in a pretty crazy and whacked-out, dangerous world, you can still have fun.

Give me oysters and beer, for dinner every day of the year, and I'll be fine.

It's my job to be better than the rest, and that's enough reason to go for me. It's my job to be better than the rest, and that makes the day for me.

I made a deal with the devil for a whole lot of money.

My only contact with the outside world was an RCA Victrola, and Elvis would sing, and then I'd dream about expensive cars.

We need more fruitcakes in this world and less bakers!

We need people that care! I'm mad as hell! And I don't want to

take it anymore!

We need more fruitcakes in this world, and less bakers!

There's a little bit of fruitcake left in everyone of us.

I'm growing older, but not up.

Pack your bags, we're going on a guilt trip!

I still believe in rock and roll, it pays my bills.

I'd like to be a jellyfish, 'cause jellyfish don't pay rent.

My head hurts, my feet stink, and I don't love Jesus. It's that kind of morning.

I got quarters in my loafers trying to fight inflation when it only used to take a cent.

They send you off to college, try to gain a little knowledge, but all you want to do is learn how to score.

I want to keep going as I have, to travel, read, perform, write, and enjoy my family. I've promised myself only this: no more Laundromats, no more two-shows-a-night, and no more deadlines. I'll work at my own pace.

You better lava me now or lava me not.

Mirror that lies, mirror that lies, that can't be me in the gorilla disguise.

It's important to have as much fun as possible while we're here. It balances out the times when the minefield of life explodes.

Drive-in, you guzzle gin, commit a little mortal sin.

I was suppose to be a Jesuit priest or a naval academy graduate.

My occupational hazard is my occupation's just not around.

Surrounded by stories surreal and sublime, I fell in Love in the Library once upon a time.

Lights are glowing in the palm trees.

I'm living on things that excite me, be they pastry, or lobster, or love.

Pickup's washed and you just got paid, with any luck at all you might even get laid.

I got a PBS mind in an MTV world.

Be yourself, be pleasant, play hard and have no regrets.

Barmaid, bring a pitcher, another round of brew. Honey, why don't we get drunk and screw?

Wasting away again in Margaritaville, searching for my lost shaker of salt.

Where's the church, who took the steeple, Religion's in the hands of some crazy ass people, Television preachers with bad hair and dimples, The God's honest truth is, it's not that simple.

I remember the excruciating school task of writing a three-page term paper. But, oh, that feeling when I was done! I think I drive myself for that feeling of accomplishment.

Forget that blind ambition, and learn to trust your intuition.

Only time will tell if it was time well-spent.

Being rich and famous seems to have its ups and downs. That's the price you pay for being troubadours and clowns.

Tell me where are the flashbacks they all warned us would come?

The wino and I know the pain of back bustin'.

Be good, and you will be lonesome, be lonesome and you will be free. Live a lie and you will live to regret it, that's what living is to me.

Whether it's a letter, song lyrics, part of a novel, or instructions on how to fix a kitchen sink, it's writing. You keep your craft honed, you acquire the discipline to finish things. You turn into a self-taskmaster.

It's those changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes nothing remains quite the same. With all of our running and all of our cunning, if we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane.

So I'll put on my bob marley tape And practice what I preach Get jah lost in the reggae mon As I walk along the beach.

Sail the main course in a simple sturdy craft. Keep her well stocked with short stories and long laughs. Go fast enough to get there but slow enough to see. Moderation seems to be the key.

I got my hush puppies on. I guess I never was made meant for glitter rock and roll.

I've always found drugs and alcohol somewhat pedestrian. It's like, I don't need an external agent to open my mind. I'm here, conscious, alert, present. Why would I alter that?

I'm going back to my parrot head friends.

Is it time for your medication or mine?

We got to roll with the punches, play all of our hunches, make the best of whatever comes your way. Forget that blind ambition, learn to trust your intuition -- plowing straight ahead, come what may.

Yes, I am a pirate, two hundred years to late. Cannons don't thunder, there's nothing to plunder, I'm an over forty victim of fate.

Therapy is extremely expensive. Popping bubble wrap is radically cheap.

I was hungry and went out for a bite, ran into a chum with a bottle of rum and we wound up drinking all night.

I've done a bit of smuggling, I've run my share of grass. I made enough money to buy Miami, but I piss it away so fast.

Back to my childhood where those monsters reside. They snack on innocence and dine on self esteem.

Where it all ends I can't fathom, my friends. If I knew, I might toss out my anchor.

When the good times come around, they gallup in like wild horses. You just try to stay on them for as long as you can. And when they throw you offyou just wait in the shade until they come around again.

I have never cared about setting world records, or filling my boat with fish, or, for that matter, even catching fish. I go for the experience of spending six hours in the arms of the ocean, never thinking of a single thing except chasing fish.

Later down the road of life, i made the discovery that salt water was also good for the mental abrasions one inevitably acquires on land.

It was too much Tequila, or not quite enough.

Under the heavens and under the sea there's a friend I don't know, who holds the right key.

The ocean has always been a salve to my soul.

Don't try to describe the ocean if you've never seen it.

Nothing to show but this brand new tattoo. But it's a real beauty, a Mexican cutie, how it got here I haven't a clue.

We're wanted men, we'll strike again, but first let's have a beer.

Why don't we get drunk and screw?

I've got a Caribbean soul I can barely control, and some Texas hidden here in my heart!

The right combination of guilt and machismo has sent many a fool out into the jungle when he should have stayed home.

If I couldn't laugh, I just would go insane. If we couldn't laugh, we just would go insane. If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane.

Songwriters write songs, but they really belong to the listener.

If we couldn't laugh, we would all going to go insane.

I have always looked at life as a voyage, mostly wonderful, sometimes frightening. In my family and friends I have discovered treasure more valuable than gold.

Some of it's magic and some of it's tragic but I had a good life all the way.

Found a shaman in a diaper with a poppy pot. When I asked if he was cold, he said just think hot.

The only thing that is still free in this world is religion, which is why a lot of people find it.

Where it all ends I can't fathom, my friends.
If I knew, I might toss out my anchor.

I just thank God I don't live in a trailer.

He went to Paris looking for answers to questions that bothered him so. He was impressive, young and aggressive, saving the world on his own.

Come back, come back, back to Jamaica

Don't you know we made a big mistaika

We would be so sad if you told us goodbye

And we promise not to shoot you out of the sky!

Shells sink, dreams float. Life's good on our boat.

Tonight I just need my guitar.

Today there are two Madonnas, our lady of Fatima over here and that woman from Michigan.

Elvis up in Michigan and maybe out in Mars.

It's a fine line between Saturday night and Sunday morning.

If I don't die by Thursday, I'll be roaring Friday night.

As a dreamer of dreams and a travelin' man, I have chalked up many a mile. Read dozens of books about heroes and crooks, and I learned much from both of their styles.

And I wound up in New Orleans for all those years and it was a great place, really a catalyst creatively.

If I couldn't laugh I just would go insane, If we couldn't laugh we just would go insane, If we weren't all crazy we would go insane.

I'm a big follower and reactor to weather.

I always said that I wouldn't use a teleprompter, and if I start to sing real flat, I'll hang it up.

Elvis was the only man from Northeast Mississippi who could shake his hips and still be loved by rednecks, cops, and hippies.

And you find as a writer there are certain spots on the planet where you write better than others, and I believe in that. And New Orleans is one of them.

And I try to give the best bang for the buck. I love performing more than anything else.

My mother insisted that her children read.

At 57, to have a No. 1 album, I wasn't expecting it.

Instinct taught me 20 years ago to pace a song or a concert performance. That translates into pacing a story, pleasing a reading audience.

You know, as a writer, I'm more of a listener than a writer, cuz if I hear something I will write it down.

Quitting doesn't enter my mind.

Places I've lived since then had to have some kind of uniqueness and character about them. And logically Key West, and then Down Island. So, all of that stuff sort of had it's roots in New Orleans and went crazy.

These old ballparks are like cathedrals in America. We don't have big old Gothic cathedrals like they do in Europe. But we got baseball parks.

To describe my scarce leisure time in today's terms, I always default to reading.

If it doesn't work out there will never be any doubt that the pleasure was worth all the pain.

It's been wonderful for me, and I feel so privileged to have fans that are that loyal.

I still consider it a summer job, though. So, I try to maintain that summer job as long as I can. But it's exciting to be able to have the opportunity to do things I always dreamed of as a kid.

Phish and Dave Matthews really know their audiences and really treat them well.

I'm inspired by people who keep on rolling, no matter their age.

If we weren't all crazy, we'd just go insane.

Searching is half the fun: life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party.

Moderation is the key so I work certain amount of time and then I take a certain amount of time off.

There's something missing in the music industry today... and it's music. Songs you hear don't last, it's just product fed to you by the industry.

The stores and the things like that, the business side of things came out at the point when, I'd say probably in the early '70s, it looked like the year of the singer-songwriter was over, 'cause music changed in our time and the spotlight was out.

We are the people our parents warned us about.

I can only say the first thing that pops into my mind is I remember, years ago, seeing kind of a has-been country singer working -- when I first moved to Nashville -- in a bar in a Holiday Inn.

If life gives you limes, make margaritas.

Indecision may or may not be my problem.

It takes no more time to see the good side of life than it takes to see the bad.

Older and wiser voices can help you find the right path, if you are only willing to listen.

Well, I'm still here. Didn't have to go to rehab, and I'm not broke.

I hate to mention age, but I come from an era when we weren't consumed by technology and television.

Is it ignorance or apathy? Hey, I don't know and I don't care.

People who think too much before they act don't act too much.

I just want to live happily ever after, every now and then.

Wrinkles will only go where the smiles have been.