Tom Petty quotes

The waiting is the hardest part, every day you get one more yard. You take it on faith, you take it to the heart, the waiting is hardest part.
-- Tom Petty

#Heart #Waiting #Advice

Songwriting ability is a gift. After a while, you come to realize, "I've really been blessed. I can write these things and it makes me happy, and it makes millions of people happy." It's an obligation, it's bigger than you. It's the only true magic I know. It's not pulling a rabbit out of a hat; it's real. It's your soul floating out to theirs.
-- Tom Petty

#Real #Blessed #Writing

You belong somewhere you feel free.
-- Tom Petty

#Feels

The truth is that if you play on TV there is always a sponsor. There is no way around it. I've already passed on so much money I don't worry about it anymore.
-- Tom Petty

#Play #Worry #Way

You believe what you want to believe
-- Tom Petty

#Believe #Want #What You Want

I want to be successful. Not just money. Just making a successful record and a successful show. I could feel successful without selling a million records.
-- Tom Petty

#Successful #Records #Want

Running down a dream... working on a mystery... going wherever it leads...
-- Tom Petty

#Running #Dream #Mystery

The music has to be affordable. It's the common man that keeps it going, and if you price it out of his realm, it becomes a thing of the elite.
-- Tom Petty

#Men #Common #Realms

Buy me a drink, sing me a song; take me as I come, cause I can't stay long.
-- Tom Petty

#Song #Long #Causes

I didn't worry about my career ending, but there were days where I felt pretty beat up by it all and just pretty tired, because they didn't make it easy for me. And coming right off the last lawsuit, it was the last thing I wanted to get involved in. When it was over, we didn't really celebrate, we were just exhausted. I lost all interest in the record business and never wanted to do anything except hand in a record again.
-- Tom Petty

#Tired #Hands #Careers

Even the losers get lucky sometimes!
-- Tom Petty

#Lucky #Loser #Sometimes

It's always been great to be onstage. It's really effortless up there. It's not a lot of work.
-- Tom Petty

#Effortless

'Free Fallin'' is a very good song. Maybe it would be one of my favorites if it hadn't become this huge anthem. But I'm grateful that people like it.
-- Tom Petty

#Song #Grateful #People

I'm certainly not a Robin Hood, I'm not that way. I don't want to come through, burn everybody for $200 a ticket and then they can't afford to come see me again. Plus, I just don't think it's right. I don't think we need that much money. I just do what seems like the logical thing to do.
-- Tom Petty

#Thinking #Needs #Want

I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings. Coming down is the hardest thing.
-- Tom Petty

#Wings #Hardest

I'm more interested in what I'm going to leave behind me than in making a big hit record. I've refined what I do for a long time. If getting better at it means it goes over the heads of those who only wanted to party, then so be it.
-- Tom Petty

#Party #Mean #Long

I've learned one thing, and that's to quit worrying about stupid things. You have four years to be irresponsible here, relax. Work is for people with jobs. You'll never remember class time, but you'll remember the time you wasted hanging out with your friends. So stay out late. Go out with your friends on a Tuesday when you have a paper due on Wednesday. Spend money you don't have. Drink 'til sunrise. The work never ends, but college does...
-- Tom Petty

#Life #Jobs #Work

I'm not any happier anywhere than when I'm in the studio. I'm over the moon about it. It keeps me young, it keeps me feeling like I have some purpose.
-- Tom Petty

#Moon #Feelings #Purpose

Music really isn’t supposed to be perfect.  It’s all about people relating to each other and doing something that’s really from the soul.  It must come from the soul.
-- Tom Petty

#Perfect #People #Soul

That's stupid. You couldn't pay me to go. I'm not oversimplifying it. That's what's going on. I don't think it would be any fun without the drugs. It's a drug party.
-- Tom Petty

#Fun #Stupid #Party

And the days went by like paper in the wind. Everything changed, then changed again. It's hard to find a friend. It's hard to find a friend.
-- Tom Petty

#Wind #Paper #Changed

Music is probably the only real magic I have encountered in my life. There's not some trick involved with it. It's pure and it's real. It moves, it heals, it communicates and does all these incredible things.
-- Tom Petty

#Real #Moving #Magic

It's very easy to be cynical about the hall of fame. But on the other hand, it's really a beautiful thing for someone like me. I dedicated my entire life to this music.
-- Tom Petty

#Beautiful #Reality #Hands

I don't treat the band like I'm above them or that they're a hired hand for me. We've never worked that way. So I'm a team player. I would be very uncomfortable having to do this alone.
-- Tom Petty

#Team #Player #Hands

As we celebrate mediocrity, all the boys upstairs want to see. How much you'll pay for what you used to get for free.
-- Tom Petty

#Art #Boys #Media

Excuse me if I have/some place in my mind/where I go time to time.
-- Tom Petty

#Music #Time #Solitude

You were the one who made things different, you were the one who took me in. You were the one thing I could count on, above all, you were my friend.
-- Tom Petty

#Different #Made #Friendship Lyrics

Go after what you really love and find a way to make that work for you, and then you'll be a happy person.
-- Tom Petty

#Way #Happy Person #Persons

You get in there, you get the job done and you get the hell out.
-- Tom Petty

#Jobs #Done #Hell

No matter how long you play the guitar, there's always something else to learn.
-- Tom Petty

#Play #Guitar #Long

Let's get to the point Let's roll another joint
-- Tom Petty

#Weed #Smoking Weed #Smoking

Redemption comes to those who wait, forgiveness is the key.
-- Tom Petty

#Keys #Waiting #Redemption

Last dance with Mary Jane One more time to kill the pain I feel summer creepin' in and I'm Tired of this town again
-- Tom Petty

#Summer #Pain #Tired

I think watching the TV news is bad for you. It is bad for your physical health and your mental health.
-- Tom Petty

#Thinking #Tv News #Tvs

Some grow young, some grow cold...
-- Tom Petty

#Cold #Young #Grows

I don't believe in censorship, but I do believe that an artist has to take some moral responsibility for what he or she is putting out there.
-- Tom Petty

#Believe #Responsibility #Artist

We haven't always been boy scouts, but we never lost sight of the music, Let me remind you that this ain't the end.
-- Tom Petty

#Boys #Sight #Boy Scout

I'm not exactly a guy who makes new friends easily.
-- Tom Petty

#Guy #New Friends

In a world that keeps on pushing me around, I'm gonna stand my ground, and I won't back down...
-- Tom Petty

#World #Pushing

What I've learned about marriage: You need to have each other's back; you have to be a kind of team going through life.
-- Tom Petty

#Team #Needs #Kind

I love history, doesn't matter what era, I'm fascinated.
-- Tom Petty

#Matter #Eras

I would never put my songs in a commercial.
-- Tom Petty

#Song

I've never had any idea that what I like would resonate with the audience, and I'm pleasantly surprised when it does.
-- Tom Petty

#Ideas #Doe #Audience

If you listen long enough you can hear my skin grow tough love is painful to the touch must be made of stronger stuff.
-- Tom Petty

#Love #Long #Skins

At the end of the day, you're just phonograph records.
-- Tom Petty

#Perspective #The End Of The Day #Records

When you kill somebody's little sister with a missile, he's going to hate you forever. And the next generation will hate you even more.
-- Tom Petty

#Hate #War #Forever

We don't really make bad records, though some people might like some more than others. And we have never really done a bad show. So I think in a way maybe we've been taken for granted.
-- Tom Petty

#Taken #Thinking #People

He [George Harrison] told me he really, really admired John [Lennon]. He probably wanted John's acceptance pretty bad, you know?
-- Tom Petty

#Acceptance #Lennon #Wanted