Mark Knopfler Quotes

It was just like a dream. I could have ended up with an album that's not all that different from anything else coming out of Nashville. Mutt made the difference. He took these songs, my attitude, my creativity, and colored them in a way that is unique.

My music is not a particular genre. It's not bubblegum or cheese. It's just good songs, pop songs. It's just my songs.

But when I started writing songs, I stopped painting completely, and the only art things I do are connected to the career, like album sleeves and, to some extent, posters and things like that.

Once I'd heard 'Modern Times' by Bob Dylan, it really changed the way I wanted to make records.

Ideas are really what interest me in producing a band, if I can bring something productive to the project.

Democracy can tie your hands in a rock 'n' roll band, you know? It can be a great thing, but if you've got a certain amount of vision and you write a lot of songs, it's sometimes better to have your own band and make your own decisions.

When you make something that you're really proud of, and it doesn't do well, you can live with it. The hard part is when you make something that you have to compromise on and it doesn't do well.

The Yardbirds sort of disbanded, and I was disappointed because I thought what we were doing was really good. I thought we were really onto something. I thought I was really onto something with these ideas that I had.

Nothing ever comes out the way I hope it will. That first vision, that initial vision you have of a book, what it's going to be like when it's done, it begins to go wrong the second you start to write.

I'm the classic case of a great player on a bad team, and it stinks.

George felt the group wasn't giving him the freedom he needed to develop his songwriting. But I have to admit the end came a little sooner than I expected.

It is hard when you think you can do better, but things just aren't working out.

I'm used to writing and performing my own material; doing someone else's is refreshing.

I went down to London with the idea that I was going to do vocals over this crazy, crazy trip-hop digital beat. Within two or three months, I heard Hunky Dory by David Bowie and that changed me in one way, and I realized what I actually wanted was to have an E Street Band - individuals, not session musicians.

When I write lyrics for Priest, I'm writing them for Priest. I'm not writing them for me.

Me and Tory Lanez got good chemistry together. We could make a song so easy, but we always like to figure out what we're really doing. We can make a good song, but it gotta make sense.

In our band, every member has input, but me and Steve do the majority of the writing. We start the songs, the rest of the band help us finish it.

We all like all of that, from 'Rubber Soul' to 'The White Album' and all of that, but even before, we were into that theatrical element of things. We didn't want to do a 'Sgt. Pepper's' thing.

I've actually done bands where it was my band and it was never fun and it wasn't the right place for me and, whatever, it felt weird.

We really hated being in a band. The joy for us and why we slipped nicely and neatly into it was because we didn't need a band anymore. We became a duo because of technology.

Main thing, really, is I write songs the way I wanna hear them and the way I think the people that come to our shows wanna hear them.

Having no choice doesn't result in innovation and performance improvement.

When I did 'Hand Cannot Erase,' I didn't have a specific singer in mind.

When we auditioned for 'The X Factor,' we were five individuals going into the show. That obviously means we are five solo artists in our beings, so we have our own creative ideas, of what sounds the best music-wise, because we are all artists.

Things don't always work out as you want them to.