Songwriters Quotes - Page 11

• Denice Franke is a sensitive and compelling singer and songwriter.

  Lyle Lovett

  Singers, Sensitive, Compelling

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• I've always loved songwriting, and I vowed to be a songwriter like Cole Porter when I was only 9 years old.

  Mel Brooks

  Years, Songwriting

  Billboard Interview, www.billboard.com. December 8, 2005.

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• Some things lend themselves well to songs, some things don't, and I'm learning that a lot at the moment. It's still a relatively new way of writing. It's only really the last five to 10 years that I've taken my writing seriously in this way, as something I can keep working toward. I think I feel myself much more before as simply a songwriter.

  PJ Harvey

  Song, Taken, Writing

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• As a songwriter, I don't rush. I may sit on lyrics for two years before the music hits.

  Ben Harper

  Years, Two, May

  "Musicians Ben Harper & Charlie Musselwhite". "The Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org. February 21, 2013.

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• [Non-performing songwriters] climb the mountain the first time, take their successes in stride, and when they tumble down the mountain, they just consider the tumble part of their profession and don't even waste time mourning their slump. They continue to write, make new connections, and move forward toward a new round of success.

  Michael Kosser

  Moving, Writing, Mourning

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• My only concern about art collaborations is that I never thought of myself as an Artist. My tax forms say Musician/Songwriter.

  Sufjan Stevens

  Art, Collaboration, Musician

  "It’s Sufjan Stevens’ Way or the Highway". Interview with Brandon Stosuy, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 30, 2009.

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• I've been so used to being supported by musicians, and I don't class myself as a particularly adept musician on instruments. I think I'm a songwriter.

  PJ Harvey

  Thinking, Class, Musician

  Interview with Gregg LaGambina, music.avclub.com. December 12, 2007.

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• I keep reading about people who want to be famous - it's not that they want to be great songwriters or great actors, they want to be celebrities. That is scary because you can be famous doing some really stupid things.

  Barry Manilow

  Stupid, Reading, People

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

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• I think inside every rock journalist, there's somebody who wishes they had the courage to live the life that they're not, and that they're writing about. But at the same time, inside every songwriter, I guess there's a wish for happiness.

  Glen Hansard

  Live Life, Writing, Thinking

  "Glen Hansard of The Swell Season". Interview with Tasha Robinson, www.avclub.com. November 10, 2009.

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• I don't know how to make magic. For most songwriter's that has only happened once or twice, and I don't know how to re-create that. I know that there are some tricks and tools, but the magic is the amazing part.

  Tyler Hilton

  Magic, Tools, Tricks

  Source: mousertime.blogspot.com

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• I never was strutting through the hallways like, "Yeah, I'm a singer/songwriter." That's never a cool thing to do - to be the brooding guy.

  Tyler Hilton

  Guy, Singers, Yeah

  Source: www.seventeen.com

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• Getting on stage, for me, was a huge thing when I first started. And back in high school, everyone was in rock bands and I was a singer/songwriter. It just seems kind of lame.

  Tyler Hilton

  School, Rocks, Band

  Source: www.seventeen.com

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• For me, the intent in a song is to sing it. I compose songs, meaning I'm writing words to be set to music; I'm intending it to not be recited. I'm a singer-songwriter, and I'm a poet, and there really isn't a contradiction, at least for me.

  Cornelius Eady

  Song, Writing, Singers

  "Breaking into Song: An Interview with Cornelius Eady". Interview with Alexis Orgera, www.anmly.org.

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• That's one of the things I love about being a songwriter first, last and always, because whether I do it or not, if someone does a great job on it, my work is done.

  Carole King

  Jobs, Done, Things I Love

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• Explaining belief has alwayas been difficult. How do you explain a love and a logic at the heart of the universe when the world is so out of whack? Explaining faith is impossible - vision over visibility - instinct over intellect - a songwriter plays a chore with the faith that he will hear the next one in his head.

  Edward de Bono

  Jesus, Heart, Play

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• But I really do have a soft spot for the solo shows. Any musician who writes and sings will tell you that's the center of it, that is it. It's almost like there's something church-like about it and you gotta go back there, if you're a songwriter that sings your material.

  Ben Folds

  Writing, Church, Musician

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

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• The greatness of Mac Rebennack, alias, Dr. John, also known as John Crieux, rests on his command of the musical use of idiomatic expression. Not a technically well-endowed singer, nor a great songwriter, he leaves his mark through the discipline and control he exerts over all that he touches.

  Jon Landau

  Greatness, Expression, Discipline

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• If you're a songwriter, it's to perform your songs. For singers, it's just to get to sing somewhere. So while there may be a reluctance with all the things that go along with it, you got to choose, and this is one of my big opportunities to get back doing it.

  Donnie Fritts

  Song, Opportunity, May

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• There has to be solidarity among the artists, songwriters and all the creative forces within that circle in order for the necessary changes to take place and for each person to get what is rightfully due.

  Oleta Adams

  Artist, Order, Circles

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• I consider every one of the Disney films that Bob & I worked on, to have been the luckiest break any two songwriters could have ever had. They all aimed at quality and timelessness. That's why they live over the years.

  Richard Sherman

  Years, Two, Quality

  "Richard Sherman Talks The AristoCats". Interview with Brian Gallagher, movieweb.com. February 5, 2008.

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• When I was 6 I thought that I wanted to be a musician - like a singer-songwriter. That's what I romantically envisioned for myself. But in reality the experience of getting into music was just the opposite. My parents signed me up for classical guitar lessons, which made for two years of the most depressing Wednesday evenings.

  Andrew Garfield

  Depressing, Reality, Guitar

  Interview with Terry Gilliam, www.interviewmagazine.com. September 17, 2010.

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• I'm an English songwriter/composer, working in Mandarin and trying to find something about Chinese culture that I really relate to and respect and feel some genuine emotions for - and it's quite hard, the pentatonic scale, and that, in a way, is why I think it works. Because I'm forced to limit myself to quite strict rules about what I did. Maybe that's how I avoided pastiche.

  Damon Albarn

  Thinking, Chinese, Trying

  "Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett". Interview with Scott Plagenhoef, pitchfork.com. January 26, 2009.

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• It's funny, I think after you are a star like Sting and you no longer think you need any guidance or aid - it would be great to see those stars work with other songwriters.

  Meshell Ndegeocello

  Stars, Thinking, Would Be

  Interview with Melissa Locker, www.believermag.com. September 2014.

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• Especially on Broadway, composers and lyricists fretted over their creations, obsessed over every rhyme, every critical chord or interval. The stakes were so high. On Broadway, people were watching and judging, especially newspaper critics who knew a thousand ways to slice and dice a songwriter for the entertainment of hundreds of thousands of faithful readers. There was no anonymity for the Broadway songwriter. Even the best could find themselves stripped naked the morning after by the tastemakers and their readers.

  Michael Kosser

  Morning, Writing, People

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• Songwriting is a craft. Writing good songs on a a consistent basis doesn not happen spontaneously. In fact, most of our best songwriters learned to write good songs by writing a lot of not so good ones. Education matters in songwriting, just as it matters for physicists, chemists, doctors, lawyers and MBAs. Education lays the foundataion on which to build experience.

  Michael Kosser

  Song, Writing, Doctors

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