Greil Marcus quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Greil Marcus

Greil Marcus Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Greil Marcus on Wise Famous Quotes.

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

Patriotism in America, as I understand it, is a matter of suffering, when the country fails to live up to its promises, or actively betrays them.

Van Morrison remains a singer who can be compared to no other in the history of modern popular music.

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

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

No failure in America, whether of love or money, is ever simple; it is always a kind of betrayal, of a mass of shadowy, shared hopes.

It is a sure sign that a culture has reached a dead end when it is no longer intrigued by its myths.

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

And because soul music is the limitless affirmation of the individual despite his or her past sins and all obstacles in his or her way,

Someone was going to want to say, I'm fucked.

Banishing the love song, people discovered what else there was to sing about.

Berkeley was a lookout and a hideout.

D. H. Lawrence's "Never trust the teller. Trust the tale" is always right.

Every time Elvis sings, he makes a bargain with the devil -- just like Captain Ahab in MOBY DICK!

Art doesn't explain itself.

Blues grew out of the need to live in the brutal world that stood ready in ambush the moment one walked out of the church.

We make the oldest stories new when we succeed, and we are trapped by the old stories when we fail.

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