Songwriting Quotes - Page 4

• 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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• 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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• 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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• That is what intrigues me; songwriting and song structure and expression.

  Geddy Lee

  Song, Expression, Structure

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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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• I do more writing by myself than with anybody else. My best thing is sitting...around somewhere with a guitar, and having an idea. You never know where it'd come from. Songwriting is a God-given talent.

  Charlie Daniels

  Music, Writing, Guitar

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• My sole inspiration is a telephone call from a director.

  Cole Porter

  Inspiration, Directors, Telephones

  1955 Interview, 8 Feb.

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• If I have any regrets, I could say that I'm sorry I wasn't a better writer or a better singer...When I was younger, I felt it was my duty to wake people up. I thought poetry was asleep. I thought rock 'n' roll was asleep...An artist may have burdens the ordinary citizen doesn't know, but the ordinary citizen has burdens that many artists never even touch.

  Patti Smith

  Sorry, Regret, Artist

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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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• For me, songwriting is something like breathing: I just do it. But that doesn't mean you're fantastic.

  Adam Duritz

  Mean, Breathing, Writing Songs

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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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• I think you can refine what you do, and become more consistent. And you write better songs that have a better shape and a better feeling. You evolve into and out of things, and go through stages, but, ultimately, you do improve.

  Richard Thompson

  Song, Writing, Thinking

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• If getting on the radio was a major motivation, I'd be one of the worst writers of all time. I admire people who do it, and I think it's a nice way to work, but I try to do the best I can and write what I like. I don't worry about it.

  Randy Newman

  Motivation, Nice, Writing

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• It's always been a gift with me, hearing music the way I do. I don't know where it comes from, it's just there and I don't question it.

  Miles Davis

  Music, Way, Hearing

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• If you like someone's work, the important thing is to be exposed to everything that person has been exposed to. Anyone who wants to be a songwriter should listen to as much folk music as they can, study the form and structure of stuff that has been around for 100 years.

  Bob Dylan

  Years, Important, Want

  Bob Dylan (2007). “Dylan on Dylan: The Essential Interviews”, Hodder & Stoughton

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• What excites me about a lot of the artists I love - and I realize, well, they created their own personal world that I could enter into through their music and through their songwriting. There's people that can do it instrumentally, like Jimi Hendrix or Edge of U2 or Pete Townshend. I didn't have as unique - a purely musical signature. I was a creature of a lot of different influences.

  Bruce Springsteen

  Artist, Unique, People

  Source: www.npr.org

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• A song is such a short form ... that 'the slightest flaw seems like a mountain.' And so every song needs to be revised 'til it's close to perfection... But achieving perfection takes a lot of energy.

  Stephen Sondheim

  Song, Writing, Perfection

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• I'm passionate about the empowerment and healing of girls and women. Where I do the most work in that regard is in my songwriting.

  India.Arie

  Girl, Healing, Empowerment

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• When you have kids, you see life through different eyes. You feel love more deeply and are maybe a little more compassionate. It's inevitable that that would make its way into your songwriting.

  Dave Grohl

  Kids, Eye, Littles

  "10 Questions for Dave Grohl". Time Interview, content.time.com. December 14, 2009.

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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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• Songwriting is too mysterious and uncontrolled a process for me to direct it towards any one thing.

  James Taylor

  Mysterious, Process, Direct

  "James Taylor returns to his roots". www.today.com. November 30, 2007.

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• I thought he might hit me over the head, knowing that he wanted to do the whole show. He was young, ambitious, and a huge talent. But he was also very gentle, and we got along fine.

  Jule Styne

  Knowing, Ambitious, Might

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• I didn't think anything we did was spectacular. I remember we thought, 'Let's just write some scary music.'

  Ozzy Osbourne

  Writing, Thinking, Scary

  "Ozzy on Cigarettes, 'N Sync and Heston". Interview with Andrew Dansby, www.rollingstone.com. June 28, 2000.

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• If you want to be good at anything, you have to work hard at it. It doesn't just fall from the sky. I work every day at trying to improve my writing, and I really enjoy it. Nothing fascinates me more than putting words together, and seeing how a collection of words can produce quite a profound effect.

  PJ Harvey

  Fall, Hard Work, Writing

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