Greil Marcus Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“Elvis transcends his talent to the point of dispensing with it altogether.”

“Elvis' early music has drama because as he sang he was escaping limits.”

“I had tremendous fun fooling around with the way people talked about songs, just the way that became another way of understanding the world.”

“I want another idea, another project, but you can't make them up. They show up.”

“You're going to react to a painting in a way that the painting demands you react.”

“I learned that when something just has to be said to move the discussion along, or broaden it or deepen it, if I can just keep my mouth shut for five minutes a student will say it. So for me a lot of teaching is about keeping my mouth shut.”

“Farber had a huge effect on me as a writer. I don't mean I write like him. Farber is, first of all, a great stylist, a great writer. Anyone can read Manny Farber's film criticism, whether that person is a novelist, a poet, another critic, a historian, and learn a lot about writing by reading him.”

“Hearing things like 'Wake Up' by Lora Logic, or the Raincoats' 'In Love' - that was something I wasn't prepared for. I couldn't hear anything that came before it in the music, and I didn't want to. I was absolutely in love with its out-of-nowhereness.”

“Records that were the sound of somebody - more often than not, a she - speaking with a voice that had never been heard before. Somebody who'd never had the nerve to speak up before. I felt: 'I wanna meet these people.' Which is unusual for me: I don't usually want to meet the people who are making music that I like. But they sounded interesting.”