Rod Stewart quotes: thoughts from “Rod the Mod.”
“Life is so brief and time is a thief when you’re undecided.”
“You’ve got to have this burning desire in your chest to succeed.”
“I love change. I need it.”
“I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger. I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was stronger.”
“My father, being a Scotsman, taught me to look after finances. I’m shrewd about money. Some people may call me tight. I invest well and look after it. But it’s in my nature to be generous. I look after people. I was very fortunate that I saved my money and I still do.”
“There’s a lot of money to be earned out of these two little muscles that bang together.”
“What I do now is all my dad’s fault, because he bought me a guitar as a boy, for no apparent reason. My dad bought me a guitar and people would ask me to play. I wrote some of my best love songs ever when I was unhappy and my saddest love songs when I was very much in love. Half the battle is selling music, not singing it. It’s the image, not what you sing.”
“I just like to write stories, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. But writing honestly about my life, I’m my own guide. There’s no comparison.”
“I hated singing and getting up in front of crowds.”
“I wrote my book, Rod: The Autobiography, and that sparked in me the realization that I had stories still to tell, about my early beginnings, my dad, and that book spawned the writing, it came back to me. I had thought it had gone and left me, but it doesn’t really, it’s not a physical thing, you just have to put your mind to it.”
“I love what I do. You know, it’s just my dream came true. There’s no reason why I should retire. What I do is who I am, so I would like to keep it going as long as possible, as long as the voice is still there and the lungs have still got plenty of energy, then I will keep doing it. I mean, we all have to retire sooner or later, but it certainly is the furthest thing away from me at the moment. I’m having too much fun.”
“I’ve sung ‘The First Cut is the Deepest’ a thousand, million times. I can’t go into a state of heartbreak. I just dig deep with the melody and sing it the best way I can. That’s enough for me. I love every minute of being up there.”
“Like everybody in show business, you think you’re going to wake up one day, and it’s all going to be taken away from you. I think we all share an insecurity in that way, everybody in show business.”
“But this is a great business to be in – it occupies you, engages a good part of your mind. Just doing interviews is great – keeps me remembering stuff. And writing songs too. I think it’s when you close down the mind, that’s when the aging process bashes you round the head.”
“What a job I have. I get paid for getting on a stage and singing, sending everybody home happy. It’s not like being a footballer or a sportsman. You can send people home unhappy if you lose, but I’m in a win-win situation. It’s just wonderful.”
“I’ve never been so content in all my life. I mean, look at what I’ve got. This is the most wonderful period of my life.”
“[On his most indulgent purchase] It would be a Ferrari Enzo. Bought it for $600,000 and now you can’t get one for under a million and a half. I also spend a lot of money on art and a lot of money on private planes going to watch my football team all over Europe. But you know, anybody who’s got the money, I bet would do the same thing. Too many of my friends are under the grass now. Just go ahead and enjoy yourself.”
“I’ve never lied about my age. In fact, I’m quite proud of it. But there will come a time, I’m sure, when the bell will ring and you come offstage feeling desperately uncomfortable about what you’re doing, and it will be time to call it quits.”
“I want to go out at the top, but the secret is knowing when you’re at the top. It’s so difficult in this business. Your career fluctuates all the time, up and down, like a pair of trousers.”
“I have had a great career and I can’t ask for much more than that.”
“I think, with suits and clothes, if you keep them long enough, they all come back in fashion. It’s like me. I’ve been around long enough and I’ve come back in fashion.”
“I don’t think people expect Bruce Springsteen to come out in a pink satin jacket, but Rod Stewart, they do. And I like doing it; I don’t wear it just because I think I have to. I’m a very flamboyant person.”
“I do take a lot of pride in my look and I work out – do work out a lot. You learn a lot about yourself doing physical work.”
“As you get older, your metabolism slows down. You’ve got to admit it. It’s nothing to be ashamed of if you have lived your life to the fullest.”
“There is this power that comes with being famous.”
“You go through life wondering, ‘What is it all about?’ but at the end of the day it’s all about family.”
“I can definitely say the older I’ve got the better I’ve become at being a dad and a husband.”
“I’m going where my heart will take me. I’ve got faith to believe I can do anything. I’ve got strength of the soul and no one’s gonna bend or break me. I can reach any star. I’ve got faith. I’ve got faith, faith of the heart.”
“Optimism is my best defense.”
“Well, there’s not a day goes by when I don’t get up and say thank you to somebody.”
“I’m very proud of my well-earned wrinkles, so show ’em. Listen, if my career was to end tomorrow, I would have no complaints whatsoever.”
“I’ve had tremendous success. I’m very lucky.”
“I’ve got Ferraris coming out me bum.”
“I have lived a great life. I am very happy.”
“May you grow to be proud, dignified, and true, and do unto others as you’d have done to you.”
“Whatever road you choose, I’m right behind you, win or lose.”
Related: Mick Jagger quotes.
