I used to play flute and clarinet at school, and although I wasn't thinking about making a living or getting a pay cheque, I already knew I was going to play music all my life.
Every record I have done was because I was a person's friend. The only time we did not continue to be friends was if the record did not become a hit. If it did, we became great friends.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Friendship can both inspire collaboration and determine the strength of relationships based on success.
This quote reflects the importance of friendship in creative endeavors, particularly in the music industry. Nile Rodgers conveys that many of his records were born out of personal connections, suggesting that the bond and collaboration with friends can lead to successful outcomes. However, he also highlights the paradox in these relationships, where the success of a record can dictate whether friendships continue to flourish, implying that success can complicate personal dynamics.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about teamwork, one might quote this to emphasize the value of friendships in achieving success.
More from Nile Rodgers
All quotes βMusic has to keep moving. But I was lucky. For me there was always something around the corner.
There's been this strange irony to my whole life. All my original bandmates have died, when I was the most wild and most reckless of us all. But I'm still here.
Music is the one part of the entertainment business where you can't fool anybody into buying a record.
With Sumthin Else Music Works, I wanted to spread the love and give newcomers a chance to make it because something that really helped me were all the people who had given me an opportunity when I was putting my career together.
I'd probably be a super wealthy guy if I had sat around writing songs and getting them placed like everyone else I know. But I write songs about people or after I meet them and they're somewhat biographical - they're fiction but also non-fiction.
Similar quotes
Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.
To clink glasses of a freshly made, seasonal beer, preferably in a pub or garden, with friends and perhaps new acquaintances, is a ritual that makes every participant feel good. We may not rationalize this at the time, but it gives us a sense of place in our common community and our time in the tides of life on earth. This is a way to value beer and treat it with respect.
To embrace the whole world in friendship is wisdom. This wisdom is not changeable like the flowers that bloom and fade.
Looking back, I am grateful for so many friends who helped me in my youth to gain a testimony of the restored Church of Jesus Christ. First, I exercised simple faith in their testimonies, and then I received the divine witness of the Spirit to my mind and to my heart.
Do not keep on with a mockery of friendship after the substance is gone - but part, while you can part friends. Bury the carcass of friendship: it is not worth embalming.
Friendship is something in the soul. It is a thing one feels. It is not a return for something.