Songwriting Quotes - Page 6

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

  John Lennon

  Writing Songs, Demon, Songwriters

  20 Copy quote

• I've done lots of songs for film soundtracks and things like that-stuff I'm not ashamed of, but that doesn't represent my legacy with the Pretenders...I think domesticity certainly doesn't make it easy to write, you know, because you've got a lot of distractions and I think a writer is always looking for distractions.

  Chrissie Hynde

  Song, Writing, Thinking

  7 Copy quote

• I could never be a country person, sitting around trees trying to write a song. I would rather be in the middle of society, whether it's growing or crumbling.

  Ric Ocasek

  Country, Song, Writing

  84 Copy quote

• I had more verses . Owen Bradley said, 'Loretta, there's already been one El Paso and we'll never have another one. Get in that room and start taking some of those verses off.' Yeah, I took six verses off.

  Loretta Lynn

  Rooms, Six, Said

  7 Copy quote

• I have never acknowledged the difference between serious music and light music. There is only good music and bad music.

  Kurt Weill

  Music, Light, Differences

  67 Copy quote

• I've written so many songs about Englishmen, I have to go elsewhere.

  Ray Davies

  Song, Elsewhere, Englishmen

  8 Copy quote

• The Bee Gees were always heavily influenced by black music. As a songwriter, it's never been difficult to pick up on the changing styles of music out there, and soul has always been my favourite genre.

  Robin Gibb

  Soul, Black, Style

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

  50 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are no limitations with a song. To me a song is a little piece of art. It can be whatever you like it to be. You can write the simplest song, and that's lovely, or you can just write a song that is abstract art.

  Laura Nyro

  Song, Art, Writing

  9 Copy quote

• Don't be afraid to write bad songs and then start over and re-evaluate. Songs are like plants, in that you grow them. Some grow really fast, and others need pruning and care...And, finally, a song needs to move you. If it doesn't move you, it will never move anybody else.

  Corey Harris

  Song, Moving, Writing

  8 Copy quote

• Inspiration is a word used by people who aren't really doing anything. I go into my office every day that I'm in Brighton and work. Whether I feel like it or not is irrelevant.

  Nick Cave

  Inspiration, People, Office

  6 Copy quote

• You write down a paragraph or two describing several different subjects creating a kind of story ingredients-list, I suppose, and then cut the sentences into four or five-word sections; mix em up and reconnect them. You can get some pretty interesting idea combinations like this. You can use them as is or, if you have a craven need to not lose control, bounce off these ideas and write whole new sections.

  David Bowie

  Writing, Cutting, Ideas

  15 Copy quote

• The joy of songwriting only gets messed up if you are trying to follow up a big success, or you are trying to create a hit single, or if you have conscious thoughts of a particular outcome for the music.

  Tim Finn

  Joy, Trying, Outcomes

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

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I was being musically mentored by a lot of people who were obviously more talented and skilled than I was, and I thought that I would just kind of learn the ropes of songwriting there - like how to do acoustic, country-esque songs, which I like because there's so much story in them.

  Katy Perry

  Country, Song, People

  Interview with Kristen Wiig, www.interviewmagazine.com. February 8, 2012.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I always believed that I have something important to say and I said it.

  Lou Reed

  Important, Velvet Underground, Said

  "Lou Reed dead: 14 of the Velvet Underground legend's best quotes" by James Robertson, www.mirror.co.uk. October 27, 2013.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• All I know is when I start getting serious about songwriting... it's like a playground. All responsibilities slip away and you're with your essence. There can be delight there and self-discovery. You can dance there... I think of it as my serious playground.

  Laura Nyro

  Writing, Responsibility, Thinking

  52 Copy quote

• I always try to write a song, I never just want to write a record. Originally I was not writing songs for myself. Songwriting is my gift from God.

  Smokey Robinson

  Song, Writing, Trying

  12 Copy quote

• Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world, and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.

  Steve Earle

  Coffee, Cowboy, Boots

  "Q&A: Earle takes songwriting break to honor Van Zandt". Interview with Robert Levine, www.reuters.com. April 24, 2009.

  70 Copy quote

  Show source

• Often the simplest song is the hardest to write.

  Patti Smith

  Song, Writing, Hardest

  11 Copy quote

• You have got to discover you, what you do, and trust it.

  Barbra Streisand

  Trust, Self Esteem, Trust No One

  59 Copy quote

• I really, really enjoy fitting words together - but I only enjoy it when it's easy, when it sort of rolls along by itself. I never erase anything [and] I hardly ever write anything down... The song will be finished before I write it down... I won't write a song unless it serves me in some way, unless I feel I have to write the song to make myself feel better. If you're not overflowing with something, there's nothing to give.

  Fiona Apple

  Song, Writing, Feel Better

  9 Copy quote

• Whether I was in my body or out of my body as I wrote it I know not. God knows.

  George Frideric Handel

  Music, God, Writing

  Of the'Hallelujah Chorus' in his Messiah. Quoted in Romain Rolland Essays on Music (1948).

  101 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  29 Copy quote

• Songwriting is a really fortunate skill to have to frame living and to find new ways to observe things you're going through.

  Feist

  Writing, Skills, Way

  4 Copy quote

• I tended not to be concerned about whether a song was going to be a hit when I wrote it. Because it became evident that none of us knew what was a hit and what wasn't. So I thought if I just write what I like, why shouldn't people like what I like?

  Hal David

  Song, Writing, People

  9 Copy quote

• I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.

  Tom Waits

  Music, Beautiful, Terrible

  "Tom Waits: A Raspy Voice Heads To The Hall Of Fame". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. May 21, 2002.

  96 Copy quote

  Show source