Songwriters Quotes

I don't write songs, songs write me.

Sammy Cahn

Song, Writing, Writing Songs

9 Copy quote
You can't write a song out of thin air. You have to feel and know what you are writing about. ... Talent is only a starting point. You've got to keep working that talent. Someday I'll reach for it and it won't be there. ... Life is 10 percent what you make it, and 90 percent how you take it. ... The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success. ... After you get what you want you don't want it. ... Listen kid, take my advice, never hate a song that has sold half a million copies. ... The song is ended, but as the songwriter wrote, the melody lingers on.

Irving Berlin

Song, Hate, Writing

8 Copy quote
I really enjoy playing solo acoustic. I think it's good for me as a songwriter to stay in touch with what it takes to make a song work by yourself.

Jeff Tweedy

Song, Thinking, Acoustics

"Wilco". Interview with Jason Crock, pitchfork.com. May 7, 2007.

8 Copy quote

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You could write a song about some kind of emotional problem you are having, but it would not be a good song, in my eyes, until it went through a period of sensitivity to a moment of clarity. Without that moment of clarity to contribute to the song, it's just complaining.

Joni Mitchell

Music, Song, Writing

"If You Seek a Moment of Clarity While Complaining, You Just Might Stop Complaining" by Dennis Merritt Jones, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 3, 2012.

83 Copy quote

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I write a lot from instinct. But as you're writing out of instinct, once you reach a certain level as a songwriter, the craft is always there talking to you in the back of your head...that tells you when it's time to go to the chorus, when it's time to rhyme. Real basic craft... it's second nature.

Janis Ian

Real, Writing, Talking

7 Copy quote
Probably most successful songwriters have an innate songwriting ability.

Barry Mann

Successful, Songwriting, Ability

"Q&A: Mann & Weil on surving as songwriters". Interview with Steve Sailer, www.upi.com. July 25, 2002.

6 Copy quote

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Songwriting is about getting the demon out of me. It's like being possessed.

John Lennon

Writing Songs, Demon, Songwriting

19 Copy quote
There's so much fear involved in trying to do something you don't know how to do that drugs and alcohol can become a big part of your life if you have an addictive personality or are very unsure, which most songwriters are.

Barry Mann

Personality, Alcohol, Drug

"Q&A: Mann & Weil on surving as songwriters". Interview with Steve Sailer, www.upi.com. July 25, 2002.

15 Copy quote

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To be a musician, especially a singer-songwriter - well, you don't do that if you have a thriving social life. You do it because there's an element of alienation in your life.

James Taylor

Writing, Musician, Elements

14 Copy quote
I got behind that pencil and nothing happened for many years, but since they put me in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, I've turned around. I took a good look at myself and said, I think it's time to get back at work.

Otis Blackwell

Thinking, Years, Looks

6 Copy quote
I never sit down to write. When I'm moved, I do it. I just wait for it to come. You just hear it. I can't really describe writing. It's in my head. I don't think about the styles. I write whatever comes out and I use whatever kind of instrumentation works for those songs...A lot of people don't listen to the lyrics, really. A lot of people pretty much only listen to the chorus.

Lenny Kravitz

Song, Writing, Thinking

7 Copy quote
Songwriting is like ... being possessed. You try to go to sleep but the song won't let you.

John Lennon

Song, Sleep, Writing

9 Copy quote
Some of the songs come so fully, it's like they are pre-packaged. There have been a couple that came in the middle of the night. And I thought, jeez, I'll never forget that. And went back to sleep, and it was gone. You'll hear something years later that another songwriter that you respect writes, and you go, jeez, I think that was the remnants of that song that got sent to me.

John Prine

Song, Couple, Sleep

28 Copy quote
My discussion with Keith Richards about the creative process led me to believe that there's an invisible presence of a stream of ever-flowing creativity that we overhear-all you have to do is pull up the antenna and dial it in. This presence allows you to maintain your sense of origin and move forward.

Billy Gibbons

Music, Moving Forward, Believe

21 Copy quote
It's very helpful to start with something that's true. If you start with something that's false, you're always covering your tracks. Something simple and true, that has a lot of possibilities, is a nice way to begin.

Paul Simon

Nice, Simple, Track

13 Copy quote
My songs emerge unbidden and unplanned and completely on a schedule of their own...We have, all of us, over the years, written things that responded to the world as it slapped us in the face. Me and Nash, singing "To the Last Whale" and "Find the Cost of Freedom". Stills coming up with "For What It's Worth". These came right out of the news. People have accused us of taking stances and the truth is we don't.

David Crosby

Song, Years, Whales

6 Copy quote
In writing songs, I've learned as much from Cezanne as I have from Woody Guthrie.

Bob Dylan

Wise, Song, Writing

6 Copy quote
I never sit down to write. When I'm moved, I do it. I just wait for it to come. You just hear it. I can't really describe writing. It's in my head.

Lenny Kravitz

Writing, Waiting, Moved

5 Copy quote
A lot of people don't listen to the lyrics, really.

Lenny Kravitz

People, Writing Songs, Songwriting

5 Copy quote
My best songs were written very quickly. Just about as much time as it takes to write it down is about as long as it takes to write it...In writing songs I've learned as much from Cezanne as I have from Woody Guthrie...It's not me, it's the songs. I'm just the postman, I deliver the songs...I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I'll die like a poet.

Bob Dylan

Song, Writing, Long

15 Copy quote
I don't think about commercial concerns when I first come up with something. When I sit down at the piano, I try to come up with something that moves me.

Lamont Dozier

Moving, Thinking, Piano

6 Copy quote
I just tried to come up with some honest songs. What I was writing about was real plain stuff that I wasn't sure was going to be interesting to other people. But I guess it was...I've never had any discipline whatsoever. I just wait on a song like I was waiting for lightning to strike. And eventually-usually sometime around 3 in the morning-I'll have a good idea. By the time the sun comes up, hopefully, I'll have a decent song.

John Prine

Song, Morning, Real

42 Copy quote
I just tried to come up with some honest songs. What I was writing about was real plain stuff that I wasn't sure was going to be interesting to other people. But I guess it was.

John Prine

Song, Real, Writing

18 Copy quote
The worst thing for a singer/songwriter is to run out of songs.

Michael Kiwanuka

Running, Song, Singers

Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

7 Copy quote

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Out of my entire annual output of songs, perhaps two, or at the most three, came as a result of inspiration. We can never rely on inspiration. When we most want it, it does not come.

George Gershwin

Song, Inspiration, Two

17 Copy quote