A famous person to themselves, they don't get up in the morning and think, I'm famous. I'm not famous to me. Famous is a perception.
Van Morrison

As a developing musician, skiffle became a platform for me to start playing music.
Van Morrison

Being famous was extremely disappointing for me. When I became famous it was a complete drag and it is still a complete drag.
Van Morrison

Even today, skiffle is a defining part of my music. If I get the opportunity to just have a jam, skiffle is what I love to play.
Van Morrison

Every performance is different. That's the beauty of it.
Van Morrison

Hearing the blues changed my life.
Van Morrison

I always record far more than I can use. There's probably twice as much recorded as comes out.
Van Morrison

I do see value in music criticism. Most of the criticism I have received over the years has been very good.
Van Morrison

I don't feel comfortable doing interviews. My profession is music, and writing songs. That's what I do. I like to do it, but I hate to talk about it.
Van Morrison

I don't think nostalgia has to be negative.
Van Morrison


I educated myself. To me, school was boring.
Van Morrison

I just need somewhere to dump all my negativity.
Van Morrison

I learnt from Armstrong on the early recordings that you never sang a song the same way twice.
Van Morrison

I never bought the commercial thing, at any stage of the game.
Van Morrison

I never paid attention to what was contemporary or what was commercial, it didn't mean anything to me.
Van Morrison

I think Paul McGuinness and U2 created the Irish music industry. It certainly wasn't there before that.
Van Morrison

I understood jazz, I understood how it worked. That's what I apply to everything.
Van Morrison

I went back to Belfast and started a club, the Maritime. No one had thought about doing a blues club, so I was the first.
Van Morrison

I write songs. Then, I record them. And, later, maybe I perform them on stage. That's what I do. That's my job. Simple.
Van Morrison

I'd love to live in Ireland but I'd like to live as me, not what someone thinks I am. People don't understand - I lived there before I was famous.
Van Morrison