Songwriters Quotes - Page 2

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

  John Lennon

  Song, Sleep, Writing

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• The thing about being a songwriter, once you realize you are one, is that to provide ammo, you start to become an observer. ... You're constantly on the alert. That faculty gets trained in you over the years: observing people, how they react to one another, which in a way makes you weirdly distant. ... It's a little of Peeping Tom, being a song-writer.

  Keith Richards

  Music, Song, Years

  Keith Richards (2010). “Life”, p.127, Hachette UK

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• Performing is the easiest part of what I do, and songwriting is the hardest.

  Neil Diamond

  Songwriting, Performing, Hardest

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• Imagination is the key to my lyrics. The rest is painted with a little science fiction.

  Jimi Hendrix

  Music, Keys, Imagination

  Jimi Hendrix (2013). “Starting At Zero: His Own Story”, p.80, A&C Black

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• My songwriting and my style became more complex as I listened, learned, borrowed and stole and put my music together.

  Boz Scaggs

  Style, Together, Rock N Roll

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• All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff.

  Frank Zappa

  Funny, Music, People

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• I'm sick to death of people saying we've made 11 albums that sounds exactly the same, Infact, we've made 12 albums that sound exactly the same.

  Angus Young

  Humor, People, Sick

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• I don't force it. If you don't have an idea and you don't hear anything going over and over in your head, don't sit down and try to write a song. You know, go mow the lawn...My songs speak for themselves.

  Neil Young

  Song, Writing, Ideas

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• I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I'll die like a poet.

  Bob Dylan

  Musician, Writing Songs, Firsts

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I write a song because I want to. I think the moment you start writing it to make money, you're starting to kill yourself artistically.

  Pete Seeger

  Song, Writing, Thinking

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• The worst thing for a singer/songwriter is to run out of songs.

  Michael Kiwanuka

  Running, Song, Singers

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• When I started out in this business, I was a performer before I was a songwriter, I was a performer before I was recording. Performing is the roots. That's where it all came from. You didn't start out doing it because you wanted to make an album.

  Van Morrison

  Roots, Albums, Performing

  The Ritchie Yorke Project Interview, ritchieyorke.com. April 21, 2015.

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• I'd spent five hours that morning trying to write a song that was meaningful and good, and I finally gave up and lay down. Then, "Nowhere Man" came, words and music, the whole damn thing, as I lay down...Song writing is about getting the demon out of me. It's like being possessed. You try to go to sleep, but the song won't let you. So you have to get up and make it into something, and then you're allowed sleep.

  John Lennon

  Meaningful, Song, Morning

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• A songwriter's supreme challenge is being complex and simple at the same time

  Paul Simon

  Simple, Challenges, Supreme

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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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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

  Bob Dylan

  Wise, Song, Writing

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• 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

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• A lot of people don't listen to the lyrics, really.

  Lenny Kravitz

  People, Writing Songs, Songwriting

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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