The 45-year-old Connecticut-born musician John Mayer is one of the best guitar players on the planet right now. His music or his reputation may not be a given person’s cup of tea, but as an artist, he is prolific and accomplished.
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He’s played with Buddy Guy, B.B. King, and Eric Clapton. He’s a multi-Grammy Award-winner and he’s known in some circles for his explosive interviews. But outside of all that, what does the skilled artist have to say about his craft, his life, and more?
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These are the 21 best John Mayer quotes.
1. “I like giving people something they don’t want to miss the next time. It’s a show with little twists and turns and curves. It has me being silly and stupid and compassionate and completely deep.”
2. “You get to a certain age where you prepare yourself for happiness. Sometimes you never remember to actually get happy.”
3. “My fear is that I go up to the girl of my dreams and say ‘I’m sorry, but I’ve got to say hello to you,’ and she slides the stool back and gets up and walks away, saying, ‘Not for me, Bub. I don’t want anything to do with you.'”
4. “Trying to impress my mother with words was one of my favorite pursuits.”
5. “In the quest to be clever, I completely forgot about the people that I love and that love me.”
6. “You make a choice in your life, and it affects your life in all the ways, good and bad.”
7. “I’ve learned to appreciate everything that has been given to me.”
8. “Have you ever loved somebody, loved her completely, but had to end the relationship for life reasons?”
9. “I feel my shows are like a late-night talk show that we settle down and do every night.”
10. “A man’s got two shots for jewelry: a wedding ring and a watch. The watch is a lot easier to get on and off than a wedding ring.”
11. “I’m not as surprised in going from playing 1,000 seats to 4,000 seats as I was from 100 to 500 seats.”
12. “Ladies, if you want to know the way to my heart… good spelling and good grammar, good punctuation, capitalize only where you are supposed to capitalize, it’s done.”
13. “It’s very liberating when you finally realize it’s impossible to make everyone like you.”
14. “I hope that what it comes down to at the end of the day is that people believe that I believe what I’m singing. It comes down to being believable. You don’t have to be likable; generally, though, I think I am.”
15. “Atlanta’s my musical home. It really was the place where I really came alive.”
16. “When you do an interview with me, you’re talking to a cheap imitation of the person that I really am. There’s no magic in my words, it’s just me talking.”
17. “I quit the media game. I’m out. I’m done.”
18. “I may have taken someone through the wringer psychologically, but I’ve never been sinister.”
19. “Life is like a box of crayons. Most people are the 8-color boxes, but what you’re really looking for are the 64-color boxes with the sharpeners on the back. I fancy myself to be a 64-color box, though I’ve got a few missing.”
20. “Sometimes it feels like my life is just one long day.”
21. “Sometimes I get so bold and I’m so confident about what I’m doing that I actually try to be more of a dork because it’s a really liberating feeling to experience what it’s like to not care.”
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