Al Stewart

“It seems to me that anything is fair game in a song. I don't have any problem with anything.”

“The folk scene was a very strange world. It was a very purist world.”

“When I write a song, I'm trying to create a little movie in your head.”

“I think of myself as a historical novelist who happens to write three-to-four-minute-long historical novels.”

“The way I look at it, a Year of the Cat is a year that everything goes right.”

“I don't think I've ever written a song that's been about my own personal life.”

“I wanted to be a novelist, but I couldn't write dialogue, which is a bit of a drawback.”

“My first love was history. I read history books for fun. I still do.”

“I've always been more interested in the words than the music.”

“I'm not trying to be a rock star. I'm a storyteller.”

“Everything is a choice. Everything you do is a choice, and you have to live with the consequences of your choices.”

“It's all about telling a story. That's the only thing I've ever been interested in.”

“Most of my songs are about history. That's my thing.”

“You take a historical figure, and you have them do something that they might not have actually done, but it seems to fit their character. That's my job.”

“I'm a history major, and I've been a history major for 40 years. It's the only thing I know how to do. I'm not a natural musician. I'm a natural history major.”