Songwriters Quotes - Page 25

• I wanted to do an acting role in a movie that had nothing to do with the music business or in which I would play a singer or a songwriter. When I act, I don't even want to be thought of as Ne-Yo.

  Ne-Yo

  Play, Acting, Roles

  Source: www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com

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• I was a songwriter; that was the torch I carried. This is an honorable profession. This is what I do.

  Rosanne Cash

  Torches, Honorable, Profession

  "Rosanne Cash Runs Down Her Father's 'List'". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. October 5, 2009.

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• I'm a songwriter. My voice just serves what I'm writing about. So to let all that go, I mean, bring the sensibilities of it actually to the song choices, but to just be the interpreter was incredibly liberating and really fun.

  Rosanne Cash

  Song, Fun, Writing

  "Rosanne Cash Runs Down Her Father's 'List'". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. October 5, 2009.

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• I appreciate a songwriter like Morrissey with so much restraint.

  Zooey Deschanel

  Appreciate, Restraint

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• I'm not really a songwriter - I'm an interpreter. So in a sense I am an actress first and foremost. I act out the songs, and I lead with my heart.

  Diana Ross

  Song, Heart, Firsts

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• I can only say thank you and thanks also to all of the great songwriters who wrote those wonderful songs that became number ones.

  George Strait

  Thanksgiving, Thank You, Song

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• I'm always looking for great songs, and not being much of a songwriter, I depend on great songwriters to send them to me. I go through tons of stuff, and sometimes you just find material that kind of fits and becomes something special.

  George Strait

  Song, Special, Stuff

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• I do remember actually learning chords to Beatles songs. I thought they were great songwriters.

  Mick Taylor

  Song, Remember, Chords

  The Artist Shop IRC Chat, www.artist-shop.com. April 18, 1999.

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• The hack songwriter will write the absolute truth every single word, whether it makes a great song or not.

  Paul Westerberg

  Song, Truth, Writing

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• I can speak for most songwriters - those breakup love songs are so easy to write, as far as the inspiration and all that.

  Lucinda Williams

  Breakup, Song, Inspiration

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• Having listened to great songwriters like James Taylor and Carole King, I felt there was nothing new that was coming out that really represented me and the way I felt. So I started writing my own stuff.

  Amy Winehouse

  Kings, Writing, Stuff

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• Most songwriters who have been lucky enough to have their song on the radio or be heard widely don't know anything about science. The best songs have a strong dose of metaphor. Most songs about science don't have that. Like 'She Blinded Me With Science.' It's a stupid song, no offense to Thomas Dolby.

  Greg Graffin

  Song, Strong, Stupid

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• I'm a songwriter first...In my career I have never felt that my being a woman was an obstacle or an advantage. I guess I've been oblivious...Sensitive, humbug. Everybody thinks I'm sensitive...There is a downside to having one of the biggest-selling albums ever.

  Carole King

  Thinking, Careers, Albums

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• I didn't want to be the crippled songwriter or the crippled singer. I wanted to be the singer or the songwriter who was crippled. I wanted to be larger than life and a man among men.

  Doc Pomus

  Men, Singers, Larger Than Life

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• We singer-songwriter people, we're used to getting up and doing our own thing in front of people, and we're it. We're the band, artist, writer, producer, front man. We're the whole thing. You develop, it's not smugness, but this self-reliance, that can limit your creativity. When you're willing and able to invite others into it, you wind up getting a piece of work that's bigger and better than anything you ever imagined it could be.

  Andy Wilkinson

  Writing, Creativity, Artist

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• Like I say, I'm always writing and if something sticks, it sticks. I get to write with great songwriters in town. Lori McKenna is one of my all-time favorite singer-songwriters who's ever walked the planet. I get to write with her. The Warren Brothers are friends of mine and I write with them all the time. Lance Miller is a great songwriter. Tom Douglas - you can't get any better than that. I write a lot of stuff but it's got to stick.

  Tim McGraw

  Brother, Writing, Singers

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• Miranda Lambert is actually mixing the singer-songwriter philosophy with the commercial country [mindset]. And I find it just inspiring. My hat's off completely, because she's pulling it off, and I couldn't figure out a way to do it.

  Allison Moorer

  Country, Philosophy, Writing

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• Not too many songwriters, when they write songs go for broke. When someone does who's really good, it's astonishing. There's a reason a three-minute song can devastate you, or make you get up and dance, stop what you're doing and go, 'What is that?' It just hits you. And it's a very potent thing you're playing around with.

  Lou Reed

  Song, Writing, Doe

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• Paul Simon once said that a songwriter's supreme challenge was being complex and simple at the same time-writing songs with lasting depth that are also simple enough to be memorable. Jimmy Van Heusen was a master at this kind of song. His music was complex, with deeply rich chord changes any jazzman can embrace, but also possessed catchy, crystalline melodies of exceeding sing-ability. His songs were meant to be sung, not just listened to, and they were sung by the best, with Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby at the top of that list.

  Paul Zollo

  Song, Memorable, Writing

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• As a songwriter, you're allowed to write anything, and as a person, I am all colors in the rainbow. I've been through everything, you know, so I can write a positive song like 'Better Get to Livin'' because that's my attitude. But that doesn't mean I'm happy all the time. You can't be a deep and serious songwriter without feelings. You kinda have to live with your feelings out on your sleeve and get hurt more than most people. The fear I might get hurt means I might not be able to write another song.

  Dolly Parton

  Song, Hurt, Attitude

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• What inspires me is anxiety and the quest to try to change things in my life. ...I got addicted to endings and beginnings and to the idea of always moving around. ...Obviously, whenever you're going through something that's the best time to create, if you're going through something amazing, or horrible, or nothing at all you should be creating. Unfortunately the songwriters of today generally torture themselves to make sure they're writing good songs and take it a little too seriously.

  Kevin Drew

  Song, Moving, Writing

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• Songwriters I've always been drawn to are people who deal with something of depth in the lyric writing. ...I've always been influenced by the folk song, the storytelling tradition in folk music. And so for years I wrote mostly story songs. I still do that, but as I've gone on, it's gotten a little more personal. I used to write mostly in the third person. I write a little more in the first person now.

  Bruce Hornsby

  Song, Writing, Years

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• As a songwriter, if you can touch people and make them feel a little less alone in the world, then you've done your job.

  Tom Cochrane

  Jobs, People, Done

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• Gordon Lightfoot has created some of the most beautiful and lasting music of our time. He is Bob Dylan's favorite singer/songwriter - high praise from the best of us, applauded by the rest of us.

  Kris Kristofferson

  Beautiful, Bob, Singers

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• Songwriters are still the brightest people in any room.

  Bobby Bare

  People, Rooms, Stills

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