Bruce Springsteen Quotes (1949-)

“You ride in a limousine the first time, it’s a big thrill but after that it’s just a stupid car.”

“There ain't a note that I play on stage that can’t be traced back directly to my mother and father.”

“Mama always told me not to look into the eyes of the sun.
But Mama, that's where the fun is ...”

“We're here to re-dedicate you to The Power, The Passion, The Mystery, and The Ministry of Rock and Roll.”

“Here everybody has a neighbor,
Everybody has a friend.
Everybody has a reason to begin again.”

“In the third grade a nun stuffed me in a garbage can under her desk because she said that’s where I belonged.”

“For the ones who had a notion,
A notion deep inside,
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive.”

“Music was my way of keeping people from looking through and around me. I wanted the heavies to know I was around.”

“When they built you brother, they turned this dust to gold.
When they built you brother, they broke the mold.”

“I catch him when he's strayin' like any brother would.
Man turns his back on his family well he just ain't no good.”

“The first day I can remember looking into a mirror and being able to stand what I saw was the day I had a guitar in my hand.”

“Now you play the loving woman;
I'll play the faithful man.
But just don't look too close into the palm of my hand.”

“This music is forever for me. It's the stage thing, that rush moment that you live for. It never lasts, but that's what you live for.”

“I've seen strong hearts give way
To the burdens of the day,
To the weary hands of time
Where fortune is not kind.”

“And your strength is devastating in the face of all these odds.
Remember how I kept you waiting when it was my turn to be the god.”

“Tonight our bed is cold;
I'm lost in the darkness of our love.
God have mercy on the man
Who doubts what he's sure of.”

“May your strength give us strength.
May your faith give us faith.
May your hope give us hope.
May your love give us love.”

“Your success story is a bigger story than whatever you’re trying to say on stage... Success makes life easier. It doesn’t make living easier.”

“Come on up for the rising.
Come on up, lay your hands in mine.
Come on up for the rising.
Come on up for the rising tonight.”

“Well let there be sunlight, let there be rain.
Let the brokenhearted love again.
Sherry we can run with our arms open before the tide”

“I'm working on a dream,
Though trouble can feel like it's here to stay.
I'm working on a dream;
Our love will chase the trouble away.”

“Rosalita jump a little lighter.
Senorita come sit by my fire.
I just want to be your love, ain't no lie.
Rosalita you're my stone desire.”

“They found him shot dead outside Stockton,
His body lyin' on a muddy hill.
Nothin' taken, nothin' stolen;
Somebody killed him just to kill.”

“Ain't no angel gonna greet me.
It's just you and I my friend.
My clothes don't fit me no more.
I walked a thousand miles
Just to slip this skin.”

“When I die I don't want no part of heaven.
I would not do heaven's work well.
I pray the devil comes and takes me
To stand in the fiery furnaces of hell.”

“At this point, I don’t need my records to be Number One or sell as many as this person or that person. That’s not fundamentally important — I don’t believe that sustains you.”

“And the world is busting at its seams;
And you're just a prisoner of your dreams.
Holding on for your life 'cause you work all day
To blow 'em away in the night.”

“I have the feeling that the night you look at your audience and don't see yourself, and the night the audience looks at you and doesn't see themselves reflected in you, it's all over.”

“Did you hear the cops finally busted Madame Marie for tellin' fortunes better than they do?
For me this boardwalk life is through, babe.
You ought to quit this scene too.”

“If the angels are unkind or the season is dark,
Or if in the end
Love just falls apart.
Well then here's to our destruction.
Baby let me be your soul driver.”

“And she was blinded by the light. Cut loose like a deuce,
Another runner in the night. Blinded by the light.
She got down but she never got tight, but she'll make it alright.”

“Poor man want to be rich
Rich man want to be king
And a king ain't satisfied
Till he rules everything.
I want to go out tonight
I want to find out what I got.”

“Got a wife and kids in Baltimore Jack;
I went out for a ride and I never went back.
Like a river that don't know where it's flowing,
I took a wrong turn and I just kept going”

“Well, I believe in the love that you gave me
I believe in the faith that can save me
I believe in the hope
And I pray that some day it may raise me
Above these badlands”

“Tend to your flock or they will stray.
We’ll be called for our service come judgment day.
Before we cross that river wide,
The blood on our hands will come back on us twice.”

“Born down in a dead man's town,
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground.
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much,
Till you spend half your life just covering up.”

“The country we carry in our hearts is waiting. And together, we can move America towards her deepest ideals. And besides, we had a sax player in the House. We need a guitar player in the White House.”

“Well now everything dies baby that's a fact,
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back.
Put your makeup on, fix your hair up pretty,
And meet me tonight in Atlantic City.”

“Badlands, you gotta live it everyday.
Let the broken hearts stand
As the price you've gotta pay.
We'll keep pushin' till it's understood
And these badlands start treating us good.”

“We all come up a little short and we go down hard.
These days I spend my time skipping through the dark.
Through the empires of dust, I chant your name.
I am the hunter of invisible game.”

“It's a fairytale so tragic,
There's no prince to break the spell.
I don't believe in magic,
But for you I will, for you I will.
If I'm a fool, I'll be a fool.
Darlin' for you.”

“The times are tough now, just getting tougher.
This old world is rough, it's just getting rougher.
Cover me, come on baby, cover me.
Well I'm looking for a lover who will come on in and cover me.”

“Is it a gun, is it a knife?
Is it a wallet, this is your life?
It ain't no secret,
It ain't no secret,
No secret my friend.
You can get killed just for living
In your American skin.”

“Now I don't know what it always was with us.
We chose the words, and yeah, we drew the lines.
There was just no way this house could hold the two of us.
I guess that we were just too much of the same kind.”

“Sometimes I sit up in the darkness,
And I watch my baby as she sleeps.
Then I climb in bed and I hold her tight.
I just lay there awake in the middle of the night,
Thinking 'bout the wreck on the highway.”

“Well here's to your good looks baby, now here's to my health.
Here's to the loaded places that we take ourselves.
When it comes to luck, you make your own.
Tonight I got dirt on my hands but I'm building me a new home.”

“She went away, she cut me like a knife.
Hello beautiful thing, maybe you could save my life.
In just a glance, down here on magic street,
Loves a fool's dance
And I ain't got much sense, but I still got my feet.”

“And in the lonely cool before dawn,
You hear their engines roaring on.
But when you get to the porch they're gone on the wind.
So Mary climb in.
It's a town full of losers,
And I'm pulling out of here to win.”

“Baby, in a world without pity,
Do you think what I'm askin's too much?
I just want to feel you in my arms,
Share a little of that Human Touch.
Feel a little of that Human Touch.
Give me a little of that Human Touch.”

“It's rainin' but there ain't a cloud in the sky;
Musta been a tear from your eye.
Everything'll be okay.
Funny, thought I felt a sweet summer breeze;
Musta been you sighin' so deep.
Don't worry we're gonna find a way.”

“She'll let you in her house
If you come knockin' late at night.
She'll let you in her mouth
If the words you say are right.
If you pay the price,
She'll let you deep inside.
But there's a secret garden she hides.”

“Well it's Saturday night you're all dressed up in blue.
I been watching you awhile, maybe you been watching me too.
So somebody ran out, left somebody's heart in a mess.
Well if you're looking for love, honey I'm tougher than the rest.”

“There is a blood red circle
On the cold dark ground.
And the rain is falling down.
The church door's thrown open;
I can hear the organ's song.
But the congregation's gone.
My city of ruins.
My city of ruins.”

“Well they closed down the auto plant in Mahwah late that month.
Ralph went out lookin' for a job but he couldn't find none.
He came home too drunk from mixin' Tanqueray and wine.
He got a gun shot a night clerk now they call'm Johnny 99.”

“Well the highway is alive tonight,
But nobody’s kiddin’ nobody about where it goes.
I’m sittin’ down here in the campfire light
Searchin’ for the ghost of Tom Joad.”

“Better ask questions before you shoot,
Deceit and betrayal's bitter fruit.
It's hard to swallow, come time to pay
That taste on your tongue don't easily slip away.
Let kingdom come I'm gonna find my way
Through this lonesome day.”

“I was gonna be your Romeo you were gonna be my Juliet.
These days you don't wait on Romeo's,
You wait on that welfare check.”

“Hell's brewin', dark sun's on the rise.
This storm'll blow through by and by.
House is on fire, viper's in the grass;
A little revenge and this too shall pass.
This too shall pass, I'm gonna pray.
Right now all I got's this lonesome day.”

“Have you ever seen a one trick pony in the field so happy and free/
If you've ever seen a one trick pony then you've seen me.
Have you ever seen a one legged dog makin' his way down the street?
If you've ever seen a one legged dog then you've seen me.”

“I was tryin' to find my way home,
But all I heard was a drone
Bouncing off a satellite,
Crushin' the last lone American night.
This is radio nowhere, is there anybody alive out there?
This is radio nowhere, is there anybody alive out there?”

“I was bruised and battered and I couldn't tell
What I felt.
I was unrecognizable to myself.
I saw my reflection in a window I didn't know
My own face.
Oh brother are you gonna leave me?
Wastin' away
On the streets of Philadelphia.”

“I can't say that I'm sorry for the things that we done;
At least for a little while sir me and her we had us some fun.”

“Last night me and Kate we laid in bed talking about getting out.
Packing up our bags maybe heading south.
I'm thirty-five, we got a boy of our own now.
Last night I sat him up behind the wheel and said son take a good look around.
This is your hometown.”

“It ought to be easy, ought to be simple enough.
Man meets woman and they fall in love.
But the house is haunted and the ride gets rough.
And you've got to learn to live with what you can't rise above
If you want to ride on down in through this tunnel of love.”

“I got my finger on the trigger
But I don't know who to trust.
When I look into your eyes
There's just devils and dust.
We're a long, long way from home, Bobbie.
Home's a long, long way from us.
I feel a dirty wind blowing
Devils and dust.”

“Out of the East on an Irish stallion came bounty hunter Dan.
His heart quickened and burdened by the need to get his man.
He found Pete peacefully fishing by the river.
Pulled his gun and got the drop.
He said "Pete you think you've changed but you have not."”

“Trees on fire with the first fall's frost
Long black line in front of Holy Cross
Blood moon risin' in a sky of black dust
Tell me Baby who do you trust?
The fuse is burning
Shut out the lights
The fuse is burning
Come on let me do you right.”

“I got God on my side.
I'm just trying to survive.
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love?
Fear's a powerful thing;
It can turn your heart black you can trust.
It'll take your God filled soul
And fill it with devils and dust”

“Sometimes it's like someone took a knife baby, edgy and dull
And cut a six-inch valley through the middle of my soul.

At night I wake up with the sheets soaking wet
And a freight train running through the middle of my head.
Only you can cool my desire.
I'm on fire.”

“You can't start a fire, sitting 'round crying over a broken heart.
This gun's for hire,
Even if we're just dancing in the dark.
You can't start a fire, worrying about your little world falling apart.
This gun's for hire,
Even if we're just dancing in the dark.”

“Everybody's got a hunger, a hunger they can't resist;
There's so much that you want, you deserve much more than this.
But if dreams came true, oh, wouldn't that be nice?
But this ain't no dream we're living through tonight.
Girl, you want it, you take it, you pay the price.”

“I stood stonelike at midnight, suspended in my masquerade.
I combed my hair till it was just right and commanded the night brigade.
I was open to pain and crossed by the rain and I walked on a crooked crutch.
I strolled all alone through a fallout zone and came out with my soul untouched.”

“Now I been out in the desert, just doin' my time.
Searchin' through the dust, lookin' for a sign.
If there's a light up ahead well brother I don't know.
But I got this fever burnin' in my soul.
So let's take the good times as they go,
And I'll meet you further on up the road.”

“The street's alive as secret debts are paid.
Contacts made, they vanished unseen.
Kids flash guitars just like switch-blades hustling for the record machine.
The hungry and the hunted explode into rock'n'roll bands
That face off against each other out in the street, down in Jungleland.”

“Well, no cannon ball did fly, no rifles cut us down.
No bombs fell from the sky, no blood soaked the ground.
No powder flash blinded the eye.
No deathly thunder sounded.
But just as sure as the hand of God,
They brought death to my hometown.
They brought death to my hometown.”

“This train...
Carries saints and sinners.
This train...
Carries losers and winners.
This train...
Carries whores and gamblers.
This train...
Carries lost souls.

I said this train...
Dreams will not be thwarted.
This train...
Faith will be rewarded.”

“Don't run back inside
Darling you know just what I'm here for.
So you're scared and you're thinking
That maybe we ain't that young anymore.
Show a little faith, there's magic in the night;
You ain't a beauty but hey you're all right.
Oh and that's all right with me.”

“We busted out of class had to get away from those fools;
We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school.
Tonight I hear the neighborhood drummer sound;
I can feel my heart begin to pound.
You say you're tired and you just want to close your eyes and follow your dreams down.”

“My father said "Son, we're lucky in this town.
It's a beautiful place to be born.
It just wraps its arms around you.
Nobody crowds you, nobody goes it alone.
That you know flag flying over the courthouse
Means certain things are set in stone:
Who we are, what we'll do and what we won't."”

“And we danced all night to a soul fairy band.
And she kissed me just right like only a lonely angel can.
She felt just right just like as sweet as a spirit in the night.
In the night baby don't know what she do to you?
Spirits in the night, in the night.
Stand up now and let her shoot right through you.”

“Some guys they just give up living,
And start dying little by little, piece by piece.
Some guys come home from work and wash up
And go racin' in the street.

Tonight, tonight the strip's just right.
I wanna blow 'em all out of their seats.
Calling out around the world, we're going racin' in the street.”

“I pull you close but when we kiss I can feel a doubt.
I remember back when we started,
My kisses used to turn you inside out.
I used to drive you to work in the morning;
Friday night I'd drive you all around.
You used to love to drive me wild,
But lately girl you get your kicks from just driving me down.”

“Can't see nothin' in front of me;
Can't see nothin' coming up behind.
I make my way through this darkness;
I can't feel nothing but this chain that binds me.
Lost track of how far I've gone,
How far I've gone, how high I've climbed.
On my back's a sixty pound stone,
On my shoulder a half mile line.”

“I been knocking on the door that holds the throne.
I been looking for the map that leads me home.
I been stumbling on good hearts turned to stone.
The road of good intentions has gone dry as a bone.
We take care of our own.
We take care of our own.
Wherever this flag’s flown,
We take care of our own.”

“Cheap romance, it's all just a crutch.
You don't want nothin' that anybody can touch.
You're so afraid of being somebody's fool,
Not walkin' tough baby, not walkin' cool.
You walk cool, but darlin', can you walk the line?
And face the ties that bind.
The ties that bind,
Now you can't break the ties that bind.”

“Outside the street's on fire in a real death waltz
Between flesh and what's fantasy and the poets down here
Don't write nothing at all, they just stand back and let it all be.
And in the quick of the night they reach for their moment
And try to make an honest stand but they wind up wounded, not even dead
Tonight in Jungleland.”

“I'm stranded in the jungle,
Taking all the heat they was giving.
The night is dark but the sidewalk's bright
And lined with the light of the living.
From a tenement window a transistor blasts,
Turn around the corner things got real quiet real fast.
She hit me with a Tenth Avenue freeze-out.
Tenth Avenue freeze-out.”

“Now you hung with me when all the others turned away turned up their nose.
We liked the same music, we liked the same bands, we liked the same clothes.
We told each other that we were the wildest, the wildest things we'd ever seen.
Now I wished you would have told me, I wished I could have talked to you.
Just to say goodbye Bobby Jean.”

“Now I think I'm going down to the well tonight
And I'm going to drink till I get my fill.
And I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it,
But I probably will.
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
A little of the glory of,
Well time slips away and leaves you with nothing mister but boring stories of glory days.”

“Now I know your mama she don't like me 'cause I play in a rock and roll band.
And I know your daddy he don't dig me but he never did understand.
Papa lowered the boom, he locked you in your room;
I'm comin' to lend a hand.
I'm comin' to liberate you, confiscate you, I want to be your man.
Someday we'll look back on this and it will all seem funny.”

“Now a life of leisure and a pirate's treasure
Don't make much for tragedy.
But it's a sad man my friend who's livin' in his own skin
And can't stand the company.
Every fool's got a reason to feelin' sorry for himself
And turn his heart to stone.
Tonight this fool's halfway to heaven and just a mile outta hell,
And I feel like I'm comin' home.”

“There's a dark cloud rising from the desert floor.
I packed my bags and I'm heading straight into the storm.
Gonna be a twister to blow everything down
That ain't got the faith to stand its ground.
Blow away the dreams that tear you apart,
Blow away the dreams that break your heart.
Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted.”

“Well now you say you've found another man who does things to you that I can't,
And that no matter what I do it's all over now between me and you girl.
But I can't believe what you say;
No I can't believe what you say 'cause baby

I don't wanna fade away.
Oh I don't wanna fade away.
Tell me what can I do, what can I say
'Cause darlin' I don't wanna fade away.”

“Everybody's got a secret Sonny,
Something that they just can't face.
Some folks spend their whole lives trying to keep it;
They carry it with them every step that they take.
Till some day they just cut it loose.
Cut it loose or let it drag 'em down
Where no one asks any questions,
Or looks too long in your face
In the darkness on the edge of town.”

“Then I got Mary pregnant and man that was all she wrote.
And for my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat.
We went down to the courthouse and the judge put it all to rest.
No wedding day smiles no walk down the aisle,
No flowers no wedding dress.

That night we went down to the river.
And into the river we'd dive.
Oh down to the river we did ride.”

“The highway's jammed with broken heroes
On a last chance power drive.
Everybody's out on the run tonight
But there's no place left to hide.
Together, Wendy, we can live with the sadness.
I'll love you with all the madness in my soul.
Someday girl, I don't know when we're gonna get to that place
Where we really want to go and we'll walk in the sun.
But till then tramps like us, baby we were born to run.”

“In the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American dream.
At night we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines.
Sprung from cages on Highway 9,
Chrome-wheeled, fuel-injected
And steppin' out over the line.
Baby this town rips the bones from your back.
It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap.
We gotta get out while we're young,
'Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run.”

“So I bought a .44 magnum, it was solid steel cast.
And in the blessed name of Elvis well I just let it blast.
'Til my TV lay in pieces there at my feet
And they busted me for disturbin' the almighty peace.
Judge said "What you got in your defense son?"
"Fifty-seven channels and nothin' on."
I can see by your eyes friend you're just about gone.
Fifty-seven channels and nothin' on...
Fifty-seven channels and nothin'”

“In the Bible Cain slew Abel and East of Eden he was cast.
You're born into this life paying for the sins of somebody else's past.
Daddy worked his whole life for nothing but the pain.
Now he walks these empty rooms looking for something to blame.
You inherit the sins, you inherit the flames.
Adam raised a Cain.”

“Hey what else can we do now?
Except roll down the window
And let the wind blow back your hair.
Well the night's busting open,
These two lanes will take us anywhere.
We got one last chance to make it real,
To trade in these wings on some wheels.
Climb in back, heaven's waiting on down the tracks.
Oh come take my hand,
We're riding out tonight to case the promised land.
Oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road.
Thunder Road.”

“Laying here in the dark you're like an angel on my chest,
Just another tramp of hearts crying tears of faithlessness.
Remember all the movies, Terry, we'd go see?
Trying to learn how to walk like heroes we thought we had to be.
And after all this time to find we're just like all the rest,
Stranded in the park and forced to confess
To hiding on the backstreets, hiding on the backstreets.
We swore forever friends on the backstreets until the end,
Hiding on the backstreets, hiding on the backstreets.”

“I think what's happening now is people want to forget. There was Vietnam, there was Watergate, there was Iran – we were beaten, we were hustled, and then we were humiliated. And I think people got a need to feel good about the country they live in. But what's happening, I think, is that that need – which is a good thing – is gettin' manipulated and exploited. And you see the Reagan reelection ads on TV – you know: "It's morning in America." And you say, well, it's not morning in Pittsburgh. It's not morning above 125th Street in New York. It's midnight, and, like, there's a bad moon risin'. And that's why when Reagan mentioned my name in New Jersey, I felt it was another manipulation, and I had to disassociate myself from the president's kind words.”

“I don’t think anybody truly knows where we’re going from here yet. It depends on too many unknowns. We don’t know where the COVID virus is going to take us. We don’t know where Black Lives Matter is going to take us right now. Do we get a real practical conversation going about race and policing and ultimately about the economic inequality that’s been a stain on our social contract?
And of course, nobody knows where our next election is going to take us. I believe that our current president is a threat to our democracy. He simply makes any kind of reform that much harder. I don’t know if our democracy could stand another four years of his custodianship. These are all existential threats to our democracy and our American way of life.”