Pop stars come in all shapes and sizes, from gloriously glamorous divas to hip urban soul singers and Converse-wearing emo starlets. But if there’s one thing they all have in common, it’s that they have something to say, whether it’s about the highs and lows of fame, their latest heartbreak, or the nature of music itself.
Sometimes their comments cause problems, such as when John Lennon proclaimed the Beatles to be “more popular than Jesus.” The backlash to this statement was legendary; crowds of former fans even gathered to burn the band’s albums.
But thankfully, pop stars have plenty of noncontroversial things to say, too — in fact, they can be downright wise. Here’s a collection of quotes from some of history’s biggest pop icons, from Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley to Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift.
If you don’t know the guy on the other side of the world, love him anyway because he’s just like you. He has the same dreams, the same hopes and fears. It’s one world, pal. We’re all neighbors.
The image is one thing, and the human being is another … it’s very hard to live up to an image.
You can’t just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream, you’ve got to get out there and make it happen yourself.
The great thing about rock and roll is that someone like me can be a star.
[Make music] because it’s what you have to do. And if you make this music for the human needs you have within yourself, then you do it for all humans who need the same things. Ultimately, you enrich humanity with the profound expression of these feelings.
I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art.
If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with.
Try to create … Just start by creating your day. Then create your life.
Failure is not falling down and making a mistake … or doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, it’s stopping. Stopping is the failure. Not continuing forward is the failure, not keeping going. All you can do is know where you want to go and take steps every single day in that direction.
Love is just an unexplainable thing, and there’s a saying that I have in my bathroom in Louisiana. It says, “Go beyond reason to love, for it’s the only safety there is.”
You gotta make people care, you gotta know and believe how important you are. You gotta have conviction in your ideas.
Not everyone is supposed to be the same. Be healthy and take care of yourself, but be happy with the beautiful things that make you, you.
Listen, I’m not cool. Being cool is about keeping your blood pressure steady. So no. Don’t be cool. Be passionate. Be dedicated. Be tenacious. Be uncompromising. Be pissed. Be happy. Be sad.
Sexy and smart are not oil and water … you don’t have to dumb yourself down to be cute.
Boxing people in, labeling, it’s all just really unnecessary. Women are so many things. Men are so many things. People are so many things.
I’m going to let love lead the way, always. I was born with this blind ambition, and it’s kind of gotten me here to this point. And I think that I’ll stick to it.
I always believed that when you follow your heart or your gut, when you really follow the things that feel great to you, you can never lose, because settling is the worst feeling in the world.
Be brave and fearless to know that even if you do make a wrong decision, you’re making it for good reason.
The main thing that you have to remember on this journey is, just be nice to everyone and always smile. Always appreciate things, because [they] could be gone tomorrow.
Getting a great idea with songwriting is a lot like love. You don’t know why this one is different, but it is. You don’t know why this one is better, but it is. It sticks in your head and you can’t stop thinking about it.
Featured Image Credit: Silver Screen Collection/ Shutterstock
Tony Dunnell
Tony is an English writer of non-fiction and fiction living on the edge of the Amazon jungle.
