CAVE NOTES - Bombs of Truth

'Songs have the capacity to be revealing, 
acutely so.
There is much they can teach us about ourselves.
They are little dangerous bombs of truth'

Taken from Faith, Hope and Carnage
a series of conversations between Nick Cave and Sean O'Hagan
Published by Canongate 2023

CAVE NOTES - An Imperiled Life

 

'Each life is precarious,
and some of us understand it and some don't.
But certainly everyone
will understand it in time.
And because of that,
I feel a kind of empathy with people
that I never felt before.
It feels urgent and new and fundamental.
For the predicament
we have all found ourselves in
- the predicament of an imperiled life.'

Taken from Faith, Hope & Carnage
a series of conversations between Nick Cave & Sean O'Hagan
Published by Canongate.

CAVE NOTES - To The Very Limits Of Suffering

'God is the trauma itself'

You're going to have to explain that one. What do you mean by 'God is the trauma itself'?:

That grief can be seen as a kind of exalted state where the person who is grieving is the closest they will ever be to the fundamental essence of things. Because, in grief, you become deeply acquainted with the idea of human mortality. You go to a very dark place and experience the extremities of your own pain - you are taken to the very limits of suffering.as far as I can see, there is a transformative aspect to this place of suffering. We are essentially altered or remade by it.

Now this process is terrifying, but in time you return to the world with some kind of knowledge that has something to do with our vulnerability as participants in this human drama.Everything is so fragile and precious and heightened, and the world and the people in it seem so endangered, and yet so beautiful.

To me it feels that, in this dark place, the idea of a God feels more present or maybe more essential. It actually feels like grief and God are somehow intertwined. It feels that, in grief, you draw closer to the veil that separates this world from the next. I allow myself to believe such things, because it is good for me to do so.'

Taken from Faith, Hope and Carnage
a series of conversations between Nick Cave & Sean O'Hagan
Published by Canongate 2022 

 

CAVE NOTES - The Search Is the Religious Experience

'I have also come to see that maybe the search is the religious experience - the desire to believe and the longing for meaning, the moving towards the ineffable. Maybe that is what is essentially important, despite the absurdity of it. Or, indeed, because of the absurdity of it. When it comes down to it, maybe faith is just a decision like any other. And perhaps God is the search itself.'

'The rigid  and self-righteous certainty of some religious people - and some atheists, for that matter - is something I find disagreeable. The hubris of it. The sanctimoniousness. It leaves me cold. The more overtly unshakeable someone's beliefs are, the more diminished they seem to become, because they have stopped questioning, and the not questioning can sometimes be accompanied by an attitude of moral superiority. The belligerent dogmatism of the current cultural moment is a case in point. A bit of humility wouldn't go astray.'

'Sadly, organised religion can be atheisim's greatest gift.'

'I think of late I've grown increasingly impatient  with my own scepticism; it feels obtuse and counter productive, something that's simply standing in the way of a better-lived life. I feel it would be good for me to get beyond it. I think I would be happier if I stopped window shopping and just stepped through the door.'

Extracts taken from Faith, Hope & Carnage,
conversations between Nick Cave & Sean O'Hagan 
Published by Canongate 2022

CAVE NOTES ,- A Truthful Line

'It is very hard to sing something,
night after night,
that has no emotional value. 
A dishonest line tends to deteriorate somehow
after repeated singing;
a truthful line collects meaning.'

Taken from Faith, Hope and Carnage
conversations between Nick Cave & Sean O'Hagan
Published by Canongate, 2022

CAVE NOTES - Spirituality With Rigour

'The word 'spirituality' is a little amorphous for my taste. It can mean almost anything, whereas the word 'religious' is just more specific, perhaps even conservative, has a little more to do with tradition.

Religion is spirituality with rigour, I guess, and, yes, it makes demands on us. For me, it involves some wrestling with the idea of faith - that seam of doubt that runs through most credible religions. It's that struggle with the notion of the divine that is at the heart of my creativity.'

Taken from Faith, Hope and Carnage
conversations between Nick Cave & Sean O'Hagan
Published by Canongate, 2022.