Quotes by Loudon Wainwright III

About Loudon Wainwright III:

Loudon Snowden Wainwright III is a Grammy Award-winning American songwriter, folk singer, humorist, and actor. He is the father of musicians Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright and Lucy Wainwright Roche, brother of Sloan Wainwright, and the former husband of the late folk singer Kate McGarrigle.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I don't claim to be a particularly good father. I'm flawed, let's say. I've certainly been affected by the experience of having kids... trying to be a father, at least. It's an amazing process. It's like songwriting: it's a complete mystery to me. I ...

Loudon Wainwright III

I always wanted to be an actor, even as a little kid. So I went to drama school in the late '60s at Carnegie Mellon.

Loudon Wainwright III

I have travelled and been pretty much a one man operation for most of my career, and I think it'll continue to be that way.

Loudon Wainwright III

I wasn't in a lot of rock and roll bands. I was in jug bands and things when I was in school.

Loudon Wainwright III

When you make a record, you listen to it literally hundreds of times. When it's done and you can't do anything else, I never listen to my records.

Loudon Wainwright III

When you start performing, you realize that you have to separate yourself from the pack. So I would never wear bell-bottoms, which everybody else was wearing. I had short hair - and to see a 21-year-old guy walk onstage without longish hair was, in i...

Loudon Wainwright III

If I had five minutes to live, I don't think I'd be bothered singing a song. I'd be dead, so it won't really matter. I'd have a glass of wine and a cigarette.

Loudon Wainwright III

I don't write about anything I don't want to write about. I like to think I could write about anything pretty much that I chose to. I have been asked to write songs about specific things, and I've always been able to come up with the goods.

Loudon Wainwright III

When a parent dies, the whole house of cards comes down.

Loudon Wainwright III

I think I'm the oldest new Bob Dylan around. I predate Bruce Springsteen, Steve Forbat and John Prine. I was probably the first of the new Bob Dylans.

Loudon Wainwright III

Los Angeles, the sun shines a lot, and it's blue, and there's palm trees; it's a bit like Sydney, I guess, but the underbelly is a vicious, mean, cruel, awful place.

Loudon Wainwright III

If you're 28 and singing about being over the hill, you're pretending. When you're 67 and singing about it, you know what you're talking about.

Loudon Wainwright III

I was a smoker for years. Occasionally I slip and have a cigarette. Remarkably, my voice has held up. I'm grateful, obviously. But I don't gargle with honey and ground-up bird eggs. I have no secrets.

Loudon Wainwright III

When my mother died, and when my father died, it's big. Our parents are giants; they're titans of our lives, so of course it's going to be a big deal.

Loudon Wainwright III

I'm always asked if the songs that I write are therapeutic, and my answer is a quick no. In fact, it could be argued that they exacerbate my neurosis.

Loudon Wainwright III

You always want to break away from your parents, and you always think, 'I'm never going to be like that guy.' What I've discovered is you kind of wind up becoming your parents, which is also a cliche in itself. My father, despite the fact that he's b...

Loudon Wainwright III

I've never really suffered complete and utter writer's block, really. I equate it with sex: in the beginning of my career, I was writing five songs a week; now, I occasionally write a song. But it's an exciting moment when it happens!

Loudon Wainwright III

I hated the idea that I would be like my father. Which is one of the reasons I decided I didn't want to be a writer and wanted to be an actor instead. I wanted to go in a total different direction. But, of course, I ended up being a writer anyway.

Loudon Wainwright III

I love failure. It's stuff that I'm thinking about all the time in my life, so it would make sense to me anyway to write about it.

Loudon Wainwright III

Family life is tough, I'll say that for it. But in my case, I've mined the family. In a sense, I've used it. I've used what happened - the different events, the births of children, birthdays. Connecting, not connecting. Regret, shame, guilt. I mean, ...

Loudon Wainwright III

Author Bio

  • NameLoudon Wainwright III
  • DescriptionAmerican singer-songwriter, humorist, and actor
  • BornSeptember 5, 1946
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionSinger; Actor; Singer-songwriter