Tony Levin's Quotes

I'm a player and I do it because I love playing whether it's for my album or someone else's.

For me, if the music is good, whether the artist is famous or unknown, I love being part of the music and contributing what I can to the bass end.

From my time in 'King Crimson,' I'd describe a Progressive band as one that keeps trying to break musical barriers, and keeps trying to do new music.

John was great to work with, and a lot of fun. I wish I'd had the chance to make more music with him, of course, and to get to know him better.

Like many musicians, I don't look back much... only concentrate on what music I'm doing, and occasionally look ahead.

People should decide what success means for them, and not be distracted by accepting others' definitions of success.

The most fun is to play clubs, because you actually get to see the people.

Through the years I've found that I prefer live playing to recording. I still do lots of recording - but I treasure the live shows.

We all have different musical instincts, and I think they're precious and should be respected.

I'm in that comfortable niche where I'm not that famous and sometimes people do need to put a barrier between them and their followers. When you're real famous you need to do that but I'm not that famous so I don't need that kind of barrier.

Like most musicians, I'm good at becoming immersed in the music that I am currently working on. We seldom lift up our heads to contemplate even the music we will be doing in the future, let alone what we've done in the past.

Yes, alas, I've been on some recording sessions where the music wasn't good. Not so many, really, considering how many I've done. It's a very awkward situation because to do a recording well you focus on the positive of what will make the piece better.