Simon: "I think I have a superior brain and an inferior stature, if you really want to get brutal about it."

Simon: "I don't very often think I've done a good job. I don't like the majority of what I do. I shouldn't say I don't like it, but I'm not satisfied with almost everything that I do."

Simon: "Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die."

Simon: "I would be willing to do almost anything to make art happy. I care about our friendship. The only thing I won't do is change the essence of my work."

Simon: "Who am I to blow against the wind?"

Simon: "My voice is my improvisational instrument, the melody instrument. The guitar is harmonic structure. I'm not a good enough guitarist to improvise on it."

Simon: "I don't like fashion. It's very heartless."

Simon: "Being an artist doesn't mean that you're a good artist. That was the bargain I first made with myself: I'd say, I'm an artist, but I'm not really very good."

Simon: "When I look back at all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all."

Simon: "Not every song I write is ecstasy. And it can happen only one time. After that, when you sing the same melody and words, it's pleasure, but you don't get wiped out."

Simon: "My life so common it disappears and sometimes even music cannot substitute for tears."

Simon: "I suppose an artist takes the elements of his life and rearranges them and then has them perceived by others as though they were the elements of their lives."

Simon: "The record company stay out of my way. Whenever the record is finished, they take it."

Simon: "Artie travels all the time. The rehearsals were just miserable. Artie and I fought all the time. He didn't want to do the show with my band; he just wanted me on acoustic guitar."

Simon: "Why am I so soft in the middle when the rest of my life is so hard?"

Simon: "After all those years of automatic success, you don't get nervous any more. It's really necessary to be nervous and be a little bit frightened. It pumps the adrenalin into you and you really get down there and try."

Simon: "A songwriter's supreme challenge is being complex and simple at the same time."

Simon: "I don't feel any pressure from fans. But I'm always in some kind of state of emotional turmoil. I would not describe myself as happy-go-lucky. That's not to say that I'm not happy."

Simon: "The thought that life could be better is woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains."

Simon: "It's pointless to be critical of your stuff once it's done. I don't spend a lot of time agonising over it. It's of no importance once it's finished."

Simon: "People often called us perfectionists, but we were not looking for perfection. We were looking for some kind of magic in the music."

Simon: "One of the things that upset me was some of the criticism leveled at Simon and Garfunkel. I always took exception to it, but actually I agree with a lot of it."

Simon: "My whole artistic life has always been about change, change, change, move on, move on. It's the only thing I find interesting."

Simon: "I try to open up my heart as much as I can and keep a real keen eye out that I don't get sentimental. I think we're all afraid to reveal our hearts. It's not at all in fashion."

Simon: "A man sees what he wants to see, And disregards the rest."

Simon: "When we came into the studio I became more and more me, making the tracks and choosing the musicians, partly because a great deal of the time during Bridge, Artie wasn't there."

Simon: "Anybody can do bad work, but not everybody does good work."