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

What I wanted to hear didn't exist, so it was necessary for me to go out and create it.
Richard Thompson

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

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

You want the audience to be uncomfortable.
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

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

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