Songwriting Quotes

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  If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Music, Spiritual

  Albert Einstein (2015). “Bite-Size Einstein: Quotations on Just About Everything from the Greatest Mind of the Twentieth Century”, p.12, St. Martin's Press

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• You might 'write from the heart,' but you'd better polish with your brain.

  Margaret Atwood

  Writing, Heart, Brain

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• For a songwriter, you don't really go to songwriting school; you learn by listening to tunes. And you try to understand them and take them apart and see what they're made of, and wonder if you can make one, too.

  Tom Waits

  School, Listening, Trying

  Interview with Terry Gross, wyso.org. November 3, 2011.

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• Songwriting is the way of perpetual want. Songwriters are the blessed/cursed people. You will never have a moment's peace in your life. You will always be wanting the next song.

  Jon Stewart

  Song, Blessed, People

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• Songwriting is like talking to yourself when there is no one to talk to.

  Brittany Howard

  Talking, Talking To Yourself

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• My best songs were written very quickly. Just about as much time as it takes to write it down is about as long as it takes to write it...In writing songs I've learned as much from Cezanne as I have from Woody Guthrie...It's not me, it's the songs. I'm just the postman, I deliver the songs...I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I'll die like a poet.

  Bob Dylan

  Song, Writing, Long

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• Words make you think a thought.
  Music makes you feel a feeling.
  A song makes you feel a thought.

  Yip Harburg

  Music, Dance, Wisdom

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• For me, songwriting is something that I have to do ritually. I don't just wait for inspiration; I try to write a little bit every day.

  Sean Lennon

  Music, Inspiration, Writing

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

  James Taylor

  Writing Songs, Pretending, Singer-songwriters

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

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• Imagination is the key to my lyrics. The rest is painted with a little science fiction.

  Jimi Hendrix

  Music, Keys, Imagination

  Jimi Hendrix (2013). “Starting At Zero: His Own Story”, p.80, A&C Black

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• Songwriting is as much a craft as a talent.

  Tom T. Hall

  Crafts, Talent

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• You don't write a song to sit there on a page. You write it to sing it.

  Bob Dylan

  Song, Writing, Pages

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• Songwriting never gets old. There's always stuff to write about.

  Tori Kelly

  Writing, Stuff

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• 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

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• Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul

  Plato

  Music, Dance, Secret Places

  Socrates, Plato, Aristotle (1967). “Wit and Wisdom of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle: Being a Treasury of Thousands of Glorious, Inspiring and Imperishable Thoughts, Views and Observations of the Three Great Greek Philosophers, Classified Under about Four Hundred Subjects for Comparative Study”

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• Writing songs is cheaper than going to therapy.

  Brent Smith

  Song, Writing, Musician

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• When you tune your guitar in a different way, it lends itself to a new way of looking at your songwriting.

  Sheryl Crow

  Guitar, Way, Tunes

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• I wake up from dreams and go, 'Wow, put this down on paper'. The whole thing is strange. You hear the words, everything is right there in front of your face.

  Michael Jackson

  Dream, Wake Up, Paper

  "Michael Jackson: Life in the Magical Kingdom". Rolling Stone Interview, rollingstoneindia.com. Jul 25, 2009.

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• A songwriter writes songs all the time, whereas just writing a song can be done by anyone, anytime.

  Bryan Adams

  Music, Song, Writing

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• When people ask me what 'American Pie' means, I tell them it means I don't ever have to work again if I don't want to.

  Don McLean

  Funny, Music, Song

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• All songs are already perfectly written. It is the writer's job to find it and get it on paper.

  Beth Nielsen Chapman

  Song, Jobs, Writing

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• It's just the more you do it the better you get, or at least that's how I feel in my case. I think it's a combination of confidence and just having done it this long and just learning. I'm always learning. I'm still honing my craft.

  Lucinda Williams

  Thinking, Long, Done

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• I write the vocals last, because I wanted to invent the music first and push the music to the level that I had to compete against it.

  Axl Rose

  Writing, Competition, Lasts

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• I think just letting go is a really good thing to do in many areas of your life, songwriting included.

  Ingrid Michaelson

  Letting Go, Thinking, Good Things

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I swear I have at least one good song idea a day. But if I don't get pen to paper in ten seconds, it's gone forever.

  Cary Ann Hearst

  Song, Writing, Ideas

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