Quote Of The Day By David Gilmour: 'It's Sad That I Don't Believe In A Higher Power. There's A Song On The Album...'

Like one of Pink Floyd's classic albums, David Gilmour is a man with many complicated layers. Born on March 6, 1946, in Cambridge, England, the future rock icon attended the same primary school as Syd Barrett, whom Gilmour would reconnect with when they were studying at the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology. Both lads were budding musicians who played in separate bands, and would come together when Syd invited David to join his group, Pink Floyd, in 1968. However, Barrett and the group parted ways five gigs later. Gilmour — along with Roger Waters, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright — would take this retooled version of Pink Floyd to new creative and commercial heights, releasing now-classic albums like "The Dark Side of the Moon," "The Wall," "Animals," and "Wish You Were Here."

Though Gilmour was never meant to be a permanent member of Pink Floyd, he would assume the reins of the band when Roger Waters left in 1985 (despite Waters' failed lawsuit to prevent him from using the Pink Floyd name). Over the next few decades, Gilmour oversaw the group as it released "A Momentary Lapse of Reason," "The Division Bell," and 2014's "The Endless River." With Gilmour and Waters forever feuding (and with Barrett passing away in 2006 and Wright's death in 2008), Pink Floyd may be over. But Gilmour isn't sad. He's comfortable with things ending, with being but a flash in a meaningless void. In fact, this acceptance is why David Gilmour is the quote of the day.

"It's sad that I don't believe in a higher power. There's a song on the album called 'A Single Spark' — Polly's words, my feelings — that comes from a line on the first page of Vladimir Nabokov's book 'Speak, Memory,' and that says it all. I can't remember quite how he put it, but he said that 'life is a single spark between two eternities."

Gilmour shared this statement while answering fans' questions with The Guardian in 2024. The chat came shortly after he released his fifth solo album, "Luck and Strange." There were the usual rock questions, getting the usual rock answers: Gilmour loves Telecasters and Stratocasters equally, he still feels "the thrill" of recording new music, and he will "absolutely not" play alongside Roger Waters ever again. However, one fan noted that Gilmour's wife, Polly Samson, said mortality is a recurring theme on "Luck and Strange." 

The fan then asked what Gilmour's take on mortality and immortality is, prompting the Pink Floyd guitarist to speak about his spirituality — or lack thereof. The specific Nabokov quote in question opens up the author's 1951 memoir: "The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness."

Gilmour is an atheist. But to add some context to Gilmour's quote, listen to "A Single Spark." For those who know Gilmour's psychedelic and prog rock past well, it might be a shock to hear him almost croon along to a composition that is much more Arthur Lyman than it is King Crimson. It is seemingly a laid-back lounge and exotica-inspired musing on life's lack of divine providence.

"These days of wild uncertain times I ask the empty skies / Who will keep things rolling, who to sing Hosannas to / The temple calls but I can't see what use my prayers will be / And will this world keep rolling with only good intentions," sings Gilmour at the start. On the first chorus, he asks, "Despair bends my knee, the day's dying flame / Motes in its beam glitter and blaze / Say isn't it true that it's all through in a single spark between two eternities."

The lyrics might read nihilistic, but the song's arrangement sounds optimistic, almost encouraging. In the second chorus, Gilmour changes it up, saying that "desire bends [his] knee," and that he's "hungry to believe, but just the same," life is just a blip. With this relaxed tune, Gilmour doesn't cast aspersions towards spirituality. He simply acknowledges he, in his own way, has made peace with the fact that his existence is a "simple spark between two eternities."

• "I don't have any [moment] that embarrassing. Though if I watch 'Live at Pompeii,' I cringe.
• "No, we didn't talk about style, and I've never talked about progressive rock, or thought that we were, whatever, progressive rock. To me, progressive rock is very, very serious players who can really do their stuff."
• "I'm an atheist, so I hate to say it out loud, but there are times when it feels like music is channeling itself when I'm writing."
• "I saw Michael Jackson in an indoor arena in America, and it wasn't great."
• "Legacy? What's a legacy? I think our music will continue to be played for a while. Then it will be forgotten like everything else will be forgotten."