Songwriting Quotes - Page 3

• Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.

  Stephen King

  Inspirational, Writing, Procrastination

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• I was washing dishes at the Greyhound bus station at the time and I said, 'Awap bop a lup bop a wop bam boom, take 'em out!'

  Little Richard

  Ems, Bops, Greyhounds

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• Songwriting ability is a gift. After a while, you come to realize, "I've really been blessed. I can write these things and it makes me happy, and it makes millions of people happy." It's an obligation, it's bigger than you. It's the only true magic I know. It's not pulling a rabbit out of a hat; it's real. It's your soul floating out to theirs.

  Tom Petty

  Real, Blessed, Writing

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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. 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

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• Songwriting is best. It's the hardest ... finest ... tightest. It also requires the most discipline.

  Pete Townshend

  Writing, Discipline, Finest

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• It's not like I'm looking to describe something that's only true of my own circumstances. It's beyond. It's way inside, you know. It's reaching inside to something that you have in common with many.

  Jackson Browne

  Way, Common, Reaching

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• Songwriting is like fishing in a stream; you put in your line and hope to catch something. And I don't think anyone downstream from Bob Dylan ever caught anything.

  Arlo Guthrie

  Thinking, Fishing, Lines

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• If you don't try and force it, a song will find the proper moment to come to life.

  Valerie Simpson

  Song, Trying, Moments

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• I don't think you can ever do your best. Doing your best is a process of trying to do your best.

  Townes Van Zandt

  Wisdom, Thinking, Perfection

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• For me, a song doesn't really take flight until it has a lyric on it. ...Without a lyric that I'm happy with, it could be the greatest song ever melodically or arrangement-wise, but it doesn't have any resonance.

  Ben Gibbard

  Wise, Song, Writing

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• Pop music really is a love and a joy and a science [of songwriting].

  Halsey

  Joy, Pops, Pop Music

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Songwriting's never been a natural art for me; it's always been a bit of a struggle.

  Rod Stewart

  Art, Struggle, Natural

  "Rod Stewart: 'I thought songwriting had left me'" by Michael Hann, www.theguardian.com. April 19, 2013.

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• Teasing out the way the world might look through another's eyes is what makes the creative process so fascinating and enjoyable.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Writing, Eye, Creative

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• The key to songwriting is just to be able to observe, and put yourself in situations to be around people, and let those ideas come to you.

  Eric Church

  Keys, Ideas, People

  "Eric Church sings 'naked'". Interview with Whitney Pastorek, ew.com. May 10, 2007.

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• Ideas are floating like fish. Desire for an idea is like a bait on a hook. If you desire an idea, it pulls and it makes a kind of a bait. Ideas will come swimming up. And you don't know them until they enter the conscious mind. And then bingo! There it is! You know it instantly. And then more come in. If you go fishing for ideas, a lot of ideas will just pop in. And one of them will make you fall in love.

  David Lynch

  Falling In Love, Writing, Swimming

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• Poetry is a solitary process. One does not write poetry for the masses. Poetry is a self-involved, lofty pursuit. Songs are for the people. When I'm writing a song, I imagine performing it. I imagine giving it. It's a different aspect of communication. It's for the people.

  Patti Smith

  Song, Communication, Writing

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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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• It happens so quickly it seems like it's coming from somewhere else. It's not It just means that you're in sync with yourself. And whatever your goal is, in terms of hearing a melody or a lyric, the closer you get to it, the faster it comes out and the easier it is to "spit it out", as it were.

  Harry Nilsson

  Mean, Somewhere Else, Goal

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• The essence of my lyrics is the desire for peace and harmony. That's all anyone has ever wanted. How could it become outdated?...We are trying to communicate a fulfilled ideal...I am a reflection of what I sing. Sometimes I have to get serious because the things I've been through are serious...The way I see it, rock n' roll is folk music.

  Robert Plant

  Reflection, Rocks, Essence

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• Often I don't know what the song means until it's finished. Sometimes months later. I don't think that's bad. It implies that I don't know what I'm doing but-I think if you're able to follow your instincts, then that's knowing what you're doing.

  David Byrne

  Song, Mean, Thinking

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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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• It happens so quickly it seems like it's coming from somewhere else. It's not. It just means that you're in sync with yourself.

  Harry Nilsson

  Mean, Somewhere Else, Sync

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• Each song has its own secret that's different from another song, and each has its own life. Sometimes it has to be teased out, whereas other times it might come fast. There are no laws about songwriting or producing. It depends on what you're doing, not just who you're doing.

  Mark Knopfler

  Song, Law, Secret

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• Sometimes they work, and sometimes they just won't. Sometimes you get hung up on them. When that happens, you just throw it back, and maybe come back to it two or three weeks later.

  Loretta Lynn

  Two, Three, Sometimes

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• Writin songs is like a mystery. The most difficult thing to do is have a good idea. If you have a decent idea, the songs are the easy part. Actually having something to say is the hard part. If you get an idea for a song, then it pulls you along. There are just some ideas that you get that are really hard to edit out; it's hard to stop thinking about some bad ideas. So you just finish it and you end up putting it on a record.

  Lyle Lovett

  Song, Thinking, Ideas

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