Writing Songs Quotes

• 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

  38 Copy quote

• Music breeds its own inspiration. You can only do it by doing it. You may not feel like it, but you push yourself. It's a work process. Or just improvise. Something will come.

  Burt Bacharach

  Inspiration, May, Push Yourself

  6 Copy quote

• Songwriting is a very mysterious process. It feels like creating something from nothing. It's something I don't feel like I really control.

  Tracy Chapman

  Creating, Mysterious, Process

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

  8 Copy quote

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• I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.

  James A. Michener

  Writing, Swings, Emotion

  Ernest Hemingway, James A. Michener (1986). “The dangerous summer”, Scribner Book Company

  83 Copy quote

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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

  41 Copy quote

• 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

  3 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  18 Copy quote

• 'If You Could Read My Mind' was written during the collapse of my marriage. It's a great song. No one has any gripes about it. I wondered what my wife and daughter might think. My daughter is the one who got me to correct 'The feelings that you lacked' to 'The feelings that we lacked'.

  Gordon Lightfoot

  Daughter, Song, Thinking

  13 Copy quote

• I'd hate to be a songwriter starting a career today...Al Stanton walked in one day and said, 'Otis, I've got an idea. Why don't you write a song called "All Shook Up"?' Two days later I brought the song in and said, 'Look, man, I did something with it.'

  Otis Blackwell

  Song, Hate, Writing

  3 Copy quote

• I started being a songwriter pretending I could do it, and it turned out I could.

  James Taylor

  Pretending, Songwriting, Singer-songwriters

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

  13 Copy quote

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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, Fantastic

  4 Copy quote

• To be a musician, especially a singer-songwriter - well, you don't do that if you have a thriving social life. You do it because there's an element of alienation in your life.

  James Taylor

  Writing, Musician, Elements

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  14 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

  5 Copy quote

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

  John Lennon

  Song, Sleep, Writing

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  3 Copy quote

• 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

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  10 Copy quote

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

  Lenny Kravitz

  People, Songwriting, Songwriters

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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

  28 Copy quote

• I don't think about the styles. I write whatever comes out and I use whatever kind of instrumentation works for those songs.

  Lenny Kravitz

  Song, Writing, Thinking

  2 Copy quote

• 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

  2 Copy quote

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

  John Lennon

  Demon, Songwriting, Songwriters

  16 Copy quote