I don't know why I write really depressing songs. I'm a kind of melancholy guy, I suppose. But I figure I'm about normal.
Townes Van ZandtRead
Well I was born a rambler friends, and I intend to die that way. It could be twenty years from now it could be most any day. But if there ain't no whiskey and wimen lord behind those heavenly doors, I'm gonna take my chances down below and of that you can be sure.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Embracing a carefree and adventurous spirit until the end of life.
This quote reflects the speaker's acceptance of an adventurous, free-spirited lifestyle as they contemplate their mortality. The speaker expresses a preference for living life to the fullest, enjoying its pleasures, and rejecting a mundane existence, suggesting that if the afterlife lacks the joys he values, he would rather face the unknown of what comes next.
Themes
RamblerAdventureWhiskeyLifeMortality
In practice
Example use cases
During a storytelling night, to emphasize a carefree attitude towards life and death.
More from Townes Van Zandt
All quotes →I don't envision a very long life for myself. I think my life will run out before my work does. I've designed it that way.
Townes Van ZandtRead
Humans can't live in the present, like animals do. Humans are always thinking about the future or the _x000D_ _x000D_ past. So it's a veil of tears, man. I don't know anything that's going to benefit me now, except love. I _x000D_ _x000D_ just need an overwhelming amount of love. And a nap. Mostly a nap.
Townes Van ZandtRead
All of a sudden there's a song - there in your hotel room playing your guitar - and you write it, and two or three years later it will come true. It keeps you on your toes.
Townes Van ZandtRead
I'd like to write some songs that are so good that nobody understands them. Not even myself.
Townes Van ZandtRead
Aloneness is a state of being, whereas loneliness is a state of feeling. It's like the difference between being broke and being poor.
Townes Van ZandtRead
Similar quotes
Some days I do appreciate things more, eggs, flowers, but then I decide I'm only having an attack of sentimentality, my brain going pastel Technicolor, like a beautiful-sunset greeting cards they used to make so many of in California. High-gloss hearts. The danger is grayout.
Margaret AtwoodRead
I'm first and foremost a writer. I followed my personal legend, my childhood dream of becoming a writer, but I can't say why I'm one.
Paulo CoelhoRead
It is true that I had wanted to die , but that is peculiarly different from regretting having been born. Overwhelmingly, I was enormously glad to have been born, grateful for life, and I couldn’t imagine not wanting to pass on life to someone else.
Kay Redfield JamisonRead
Life becomes harder for us when we live for others, but it also becomes richer and happier.
Albert SchweitzerRead
Mama raised a hellraiser why cry, That's just life in the ghetto, do or die.
Tupac ShakurRead
Even when life challenges us, it's a gift beyond all measure.
Parker PalmerRead