What I took back, because of my exposure to the Jewish music of the 30s and the 40s in my upbringing with my father, was that kind of theatrical songwriting. It was always a part of my character. This desire to make people laugh. – Pete Townshend

The problem for me, still today, is that I write purely with one dramatic structure and that is the rite of passage. Im not really skilled in any other. Rock and roll itself can be described as music to accompany the rite of passage. – Pete Townshend

I have terrible hearing trouble. I have unwittingly helped to invent and refine a type of music that makes its principal proponents deaf. – Pete Townshend