"He's very intelligent. For regular people he's in the 95th percentile, but for this business he's, you know, 99 and a half.
He's almost too smart to be in show business."
– Randy Newman
"His plan was to build something that was more than just some songs and an artist. And he really accomplished it. He really was instrumental in building that 'Southern California Sound' that J.D. Souther and Linda and The Eagles and Jackson Browne and everybody contributed to, but Peter was a very integral part of it."
– drummer Russ Kunkel on Peter Asher
"I have never met anybody who can sing harmony like him. He'll probably hate me for saying this, but Peter's a fuckin' lousy singer on his own. He really is. I mean he is not a 'singer' as such. But – he's the most fantastic harmonizer! If my voice is 'whipped cream,' Peter's voice is 'skimmed milk.' It is just pure."
– Gordon Waller on Peter Asher
"He's so quiet you don't see on him what he's doing, which is usually the case with any master – you have to be with them and watch what they're doing. Seeing how he approached what he did taught me a great deal. It's how the music clothed him, how the production process works in him, the sort of naturalness and genius that he had in just knowing 'how much of this… a little of that…'"
- singer/songwriter Tony Kosinec on Peter Asher
"Peter is the one that really made me focus on the extra-musical side – the part of production that doesn't always get the attention that it deserves, and also the part that generally separate the men from the boys. It's not just about putting the band together, picking the studio, picking the songs. It's also the psychological parts of the session – it's running a session, it's controlling a session, it's heading problems off at the pass, and it's knowing how to deal with problems when you have them. "
- producer/engineer Frank Filipetti on Peter Asher
"I depended on Peter largely as a sounding board and, as the first person to hear these songs, initially he would be very encouraging – that's what's called for, in my case, 'cause I can kind of stall out on this stuff and lose faith in it."
– James Taylor on Peter Asher
"He's an extraordinary man, you know. In this time when people drop the word 'Renaissance,' I think an 'Enlightenment' Man. Just skip the Renaissance and go to the Enlightenment, given his field of knowledge."
– Robin Williams on Peter Asher
"If you pay attention, you can see how he produces for feel. Peter Asher records 'feel' amazing. There's nothing about them that lines up on a grid – everything lines up with your heart. That's the biggest deal."
- producer/engineer Niko Bolas on Peter Asher
"The thing about Peter – he's just such a consummate professional as far as being a musician. I mean a musician in the truest sense – not a 'player' as much as truly a musical person. He just really knows music and knows what he wants."
- producer/engineer Terry Manning on Peter Asher
"He's very, very, very bright. Very bright. You know, that's why I think that he's not as talkative as he could be – 'cause his brain is whirring a thousand miles a second, computing information."
- former President of Apple Records Jack Oliver on Peter Asher
"One of the things that I always respected so much about him: he never insists on contracts or paper – if you make an agreement, you make an agreement. And if sometime later you decide that that's not working for you anymore, then you dissolve the agreement. And I just always thought that, in a world of people who are litigious and indecent and will do anything they can to promote themselves, Peter always, always was of the highest integrity."
– producer/engineer Frank Wolf on Peter Asher
"He had the ability – and that's because he has such an amazing mind – to visualize a record pretty much finished and what it needed to complete it from beginning to end."
– producer/engineer Val Garay on Peter Asher
"Although he's a very organized person – in an English sort of way – I think he's also basically a very childlike person… which makes it easy for me to get along with him, 'cause I don't do well with adults."
– Donald Fagen (Steely Dan) on Peter Asher
"I was really knocked out when 'Carolina In My Mind' came out… There was much more to Peter than I had actually realized. I think Peter even surprised Paul. I don't know if he expected Peter to be able to turn out fantastic, flawless hits like that. I don't know, really, why I never asked Peter to produce me! It's never too late, you know?"
- Marianne Faithfull on James Taylor's first single
"When people ask me what the secret of a great manager is, tragically, it's very simple and annoying – the secret is having a great client. It's pretty easy to be a great manager when you have James Taylor as a client. "
- Peter Asher