“That’s a lovely song – a description of a very straightforward affair.”Lou Reed (1087)

“But something like ‘Vicious’ – the only motivation for that was because Warhol asked me to write a song called ‘Vicious’ – ‘it would be so faahbulous, y’know.’ – So I said ‘what kind of vicious’, and he said – ‘Oh, ‘Vicious, you hit me with a flower’. That’s…outasite, y’know.”Lou Reed (1087)

“Oh yeah, there’s one called ‘Kill Your Sons’ about parents sending their kids to psychiatrists and giving them shock treatment.”Lou Reed (1088)

“There’s another called ‘Baby Face’ which is about two guys living together and it all comes down to the one saying to the other, “Well, you’re not the easiest person to get along with’. It’s about interpersonal relationships on a one-to-one level.”Lou Reed (1088)

“It’s about young middle class kids who… uh, seem to go through this phase of wanting to be… like… uh, Black Panthers.”Lou Reed (1088)

“Oh yeah… it’s about this woman who has this dog… uh… and it gets shot ‘cos it barks too much and the neighbours get upset… and then this cat… uh… I forget what happens to the cat but something happens to the cat… Anyway the dog and the cat meet. Yeah, the dog’s dead, I guess… I dunno how he’s still alive but he’s alive and then, uh… some dude sees ’em both and puts a board between ’em. And then what happens?…Uh, I think they both get high…”Lou Reed (1088)

“But I wrote that song ‘Think It Over’ specifically for Sylvia [Lou’s wife – Ed]. See there’s this quote in there from Annie Hall, when I said she said “Well La, Dee, Dah, Dee, Dah”; that’s for Sylvia. But I was also thinking of Diane Keaton, you know, when she kept saying that to Woody Allen: “Well La, Dee, Dah, Dee, Dab.” And then she’s not there anymore and he goes with this really dumb dumb lady, and the whole lobster thing happens again, and she just looks at him and says “What’s wrong with you?” Where before it was such fun, now it’s pretty awful and excruciating. And she’s very pretty but she’s so dumb, just – well, it would be death, it would be death. And you miss that “Lah, Dee,” so I thought I had to stick that in a song ’cause that’s too good just to leave in a movie.”Lou Reed (1089)

“There is no George. I always present things like I want everybody to believe it’s real because I know it’s disappointing when I say there is no George. What ‘George’ is really all about is a two-fold idea: there’s George and what he thinks, and, more importantly, there’s his friend who adores and idolizes him. What the thing is about is love and disappointed friendship. The main thing in that song is not the fury of George, but the love of his friend.”Lou Reed (1090)

“I wrote that because I saw that TV thing, The Day After [a film about the US being on the brink of nuclear war in the mid-80s – Ed]. And for some reason this thing went off in my head of another way of looking at it. What an amazing opportunity. You’re not committing the sin of suicide. There’s no escape anyway. Here’s this amazing chance to find out the answer to questions that have been driving people nuts for years. Here it is. And since you can’t run from it, you might as well fly right into it.”Lou Reed (1090)

“Well, I was quoting a guy named Billy in that song [“It’s easy to tell what is wrong” – Ed], just in the interest of consistency. But I was very, very aware this time that I was saying those things outright, unmistakably, in words that couldn’t be misunderstood. I’m aware of that, and I mean it. That’s the new sensations, for sure. I wanted to draw the line so you couldn’t miss it. That is the stance.”Lou Reed (1090)

“I’m very aware of listening to things when you’re feeling down as someone who has felt down. And I know what a good book or movie or the right record can do when you hear somebody describing it. It’s like “No, you’re not alone.” And there’s just something about the fact that it physically exists outside of you, written by another person. There’s something wonderful about that, and it makes you feel better. And, in my case, I think I can express it and encapsulate it. And put a dance beat to it! What more do you want? I wanted ‘Turn To Me’ to do that, and to be funny at the same time on top of it. I wanted it to be a little “Hey, hello. I’m still here. How are you doing?””Lou Reed (1090)

“Part of that song is that it’s really a terrible shame not to have him here to talk to now [Andy Warhol – Ed]. I mean, there aren’t that many really great people who are blinding in their brilliance, who are always astonishing to run something past for what they can give you back… He was certainly one of them. Delmore Schwartz was another. Giants.”Lou Reed (1091)

“[Is it about the decline and fall of New York? – Ed] It’s not just New York. What’s happening in the cities will eventually spread to the suburbs. McCarthyism is coming back again, with its little off-shoots, like the PMRC and all that nonsense. It’s what I think has happened after eight years of Reagan. Some terrible, terrible things are going on. In my mind, it’s not so much a fad, as a misdirection. It has nothing to do with the city, per se. It has to do with the people who are leading the city.”Lou Reed (1092)

“I’m disturbed by certain things about him [Jesse Jackson – Ed]. Have you ever heard Louis Farrakhan speak? He wouldn’t like me, but I don’t like him either. It goes much further than anti-Semitic or anti-white. I saw the speech Jesse made about “common ground,” and it was amazing, emotionally moving. He should have been elected on the spot, on the basis of that speech. Except for one problem. Does that “common ground” include me, Jesse [‘me’ meaning a Jew – Ed]? If I met the man, that’s what I would ask him.”Lou Reed (1092)