Paul Smith Quotes

It used to be that I could talk to someone in Texas and nobody would hear about it. Now, the moment I open my mouth it's all over the world. The second I say something, guys in Germany know about it. It's basically a wonderful thing because more information is spread, but you have to keep your mouth shut. I change guitars as they come and go. I have one I played for almost a decade, but I've put it away. It was the first McCarty. Now, I'm playing one I grabbed off the line. I've been playing it ever since. Somebody's going to wake up and their job in life is going to be to make guitars. There are a lot of good, talented people. I don't see any rock stars playing an electric guitar from some new maker like you see in the acoustic guitar world. I'm pretty good at letting people do what they are good at, that's why they're experts. I have my own hard earned money and if I buy a fly rod I'm going to give my money to the company that's giving me value. I'm going to the guy who gives me my money's worth. People will pay exactly what things are worth give or take a few bucks. You might pay a few bucks more if you like the dealer and think the dealer will take care of you, but most people are going to the internet and don't care about that. I don't think that hard earned money is given away. Nobody gives twenty-five million dollars to anybody if they're not getting twenty-five million worth out of it. Forget it. It just doesn't happen. I see money as a reflection of how much impact you're having on the world. I see money as a metaphor in a way. People by themselves can be pretty stupid. People working together can be very powerful. In the camera business, you won't survive if you don't innovate. In the guitar business you may or may not. The guitars being sold were designed between '48 and '59, Gibson SGs in '61. There are times when product is more important than people and sometimes the people are more important than the product. I tried to make guitars that were close to what my heroes played. That's the way it's done. My experience is that you have to do it like a musician. You have to learn the language before you can learn to be a novelist. Christianity began in Palestine as an experience, it moved to Greece and became a philosophy, it moved to Italy and became an institution, it moved to Europe and became a culture, and it moved to America and became a business! We've left the experience long behind. The world is in great need of more music education. When students play music, it allows a part of their artistic mind to express itself, which is very important in helping to balance a child intellectually, spiritually, and emotionally. Many people look but they do not see. Don't dress for fashion, dress for yourself Charles Burchfield would look at what you were working on and not say anything for several minutes. Then he would very sensitively respond - 'Well, have you thought about?' or 'Might you consider?' I respected that so much because I thought he was so sensitive to my work, and didn't want to offend me, but in the right way to encourage me. Charles Burchfield was exceptional. As such an accomplished artist, he had limited previous association with academia and teaching. The class situation [at Art Institute on Elmwood Avenue] was such that one would be very much on their own to paint or draw. The faculty was roving to give opinions or help out technically, which all the faculty did very well. I graduated in June 1948 and then went in the fall to the art school. I stayed with my cousins on Seventeenth Street in the beginning, and later had my own apartment very near there and was able to walk to the Art Institute on Elmwood Avenue. The school had a faculty of local artists - Jeanette and Robert Blair, James Vullo who were well known in the area. It was a school that I think thrived on returning GIs, as many schools did at that time. It was a very informal program - but it was professional. I'm pleased to say that it [ a paper on the history of Attica] got much recognition with a 99 grade. It was shown to the Attica Historical Society, who enthusiastically responded to it and read it at one of their annual meetings resulting in an article in the local newspaper about this excellent paper being presented. As I now look back at it, I think of that as being really my first book and did indicate that I did have interest in research. In a social studies class I did a paper on the history of Attica, which ended up being a little book that I created. Jack Sturtzer, one of my cousins, had gone to art school and suggested that I might be interested in a private school called the Art Institute of Buffalo, and in fact that is what happened. So upon graduation in 1948, I then went to stay with my cousins on Seventeenth Street and enrolled in the program at the Art Institute on Elmwood Avenue. Even today, the bigger the city, the better. That's why I live in New York. Fortunately, I had cousins who lived in Buffalo and would often go to visit them, which I loved to do because I liked Buffalo as it was a big city. Even today, the bigger the city, the better. I was always kind of naïve, and really needed to be given some direction. I think it was interesting that when you're in those formative years you respond to things that interest you and don't always know where they lead. But they accumulate and add up to something that enriches your later life or leads you to some new experience. It [piano lessons] wasn't a priority, but it was an interest and through that I became acquainted with classical music, which was a main interest at the time. At one point I had dreams of being in the school band, but I didn't play an instrument that qualified me, and that was a problem. I always had fantasies to be part of that, but I did take my piano lessons quite seriously.