All audiences should be slightly off balance.
Richard Thompson

Amplifying acoustic instruments more than a little is really cheating, and everything becomes a compromise.
Richard Thompson

As the writer, you're always a presence in the song. If you get close to what human beings are like, you're writing about common experience. We all do much the same things, so if you nail somebody, then you've also nailed yourself.
Richard Thompson

But music can save your life sometimes. It probably saved me from working in a bank or something. That's a kind of salvation right there.
Richard Thompson

I have to remind myself not to set boundaries.
Richard Thompson

I just like to entertain myself by sitting down and writing songs.
Richard Thompson

I like the idea of playing in unison with yourself.
Richard Thompson

I probably wrote three-quarters of the songs without an instrument in my hands.
Richard Thompson

I think the reason kids get into drugs and smoking is they don't have anything to do.
Richard Thompson

I try to look for the good in everybody, regardless of the way they're labeled.
Richard Thompson


I try to make songs visual and tactile to kind of put you into the action.
Richard Thompson

I want people to come to my music without prejudice. I want them to get the music first. And who I am isn't that important. If they like the songs to me that's a good thing.
Richard Thompson

I'm always making a conscious effort to be viable and accessible.
Richard Thompson

I'm glad there are a lot of guitar players pursuing technique as diligently as they possibly can, because it leaves this whole other area open to people like me.
Richard Thompson

It's amazing what some people read into songs.
Richard Thompson

It's fun to sing sad songs. And it's fun to listen to sad songs. Enjoyable. Satisfying. Something.
Richard Thompson

People want to hear about the extremes of human nature. They want things that are larger than their own lives, and more romantic, and not necessarily of their own experiences.
Richard Thompson

The best thing you've got going for you is individuality.
Richard Thompson

The thing I do, really, is a communication with audiences more than any achievement through records.
Richard Thompson

There's a part of me that wishes I'd never said one single solitary word on any subject publicly. Then I could have been the tortured poet, and there's so much mileage in that. But it's too late to stop now.
Richard Thompson