Songwriting Quotes - Page 9

• Songwriting is Hell on Earth. If it isn't, then you're doing it wrong.

  Jimmy Webb

  Writing, Earth, Hell

  14 Copy quote
• 

  I don't work at being ordinary.

  Paul McCartney

  Writing, Ordinary, Ordinariness

  47 Copy quote

• Songs are like myths. Myths are useful because they allow you to cast yourself and your life and your own experience. And for some people, 'Fire and Rain' speaks to them in that way.

  James Taylor

  Song, Rain, Writing

  7 Copy quote

• It turned out so well because it was the first album that I could identify with in terms of lyrics. ("Captain Fantastic") It was passionate...I could associate myself with every song...It's a unique album in our history. This was the story of us..."Curtains", the lyrics to that are so beautiful because it sums up our friendship so much, and our relationship.

  Elton John

  Beautiful, Song, Unique

  7 Copy quote

• I've always held the song in high regard because songs have got me through so many sinks of dishes and so many humiliating courting events.

  Leonard Cohen

  Song, Events, Dishes

  7 Copy quote

• Dare to be honest and fear no labor. ... Opera is where a man gets stabbed in the back, and instead of dying, he sings.

  Robert Burns

  Men, Dying, Opera

  16 Copy quote

• I really, really like writing songs. Capote wrote every day. He said that's the only way, you have to sit down every day and do it...Something that's written out is okay, but it's not always a clear indication of what a person means.

  Debbie Harry

  Song, Writing, Mean

  7 Copy quote

• A song that sounds simple is just not that easy to write. One of the objectives of this record was to try and write melodies that continue to resonate...Everything that happens to you influences your writing...The writing process for me is pretty much always the same-it's a solitary experience...I have yet to write that one song that defines my career...Beck said he didn't believe in the theory of a song coming through you as if you were an open vessel. I agree with him to a certain extent.

  Sheryl Crow

  Song, Believe, Writing

  9 Copy quote

• Lyrically, 'less words mean more' is a pretty good rule of thumb. Try to cut out the fat and get to the meat of what you're saying.

  Chris Stapleton

  Writing, Mean, Cutting

  33 Copy quote

• A lot of times songs are very much of a moment, that you just encapsulate. They come to you, you write them, you feel good that day, or bad that day.

  Mick Jagger

  Song, Writing, Feel Good

  7 Copy quote

• I really do seek to create music that is timeless, ... Each project takes on its own life, and the songs from "A Time To Love" are the most appropriate for the statement I wanted to make...The most important thing is, when I do give the music, I'm satisfied with it, that it speaks for what I want to do...It is a different kind of lyric; it's very picturesque. I can see everything that I'm writing, I can visualize all those things happening.

  Stevie Wonder

  Song, Writing, Giving

  11 Copy quote

• Most of the really good songs are dead true. ... It had to have happened to have the song be there. Every time I've tried to make stuff up it just kind of falls flat. So the majority of my work is something that happened to me, I saw happen to someone else, or a friend of mine told me happened. There is a certain amount of theatrical and poetic license. People are supposed to like it, that's why you're doing it. It's supposed to be fun. It's not brain surgery, it's heart surgery. They're just songs.

  Guy Clark

  Song, Fun, Fall

  30 Copy quote

• As a teenager I started painting and playing guitar...Music has been my playmate, my lover, and my crying towel...This song ("Until It's Time for You To Go") popped into my head while I was falling in love with someone I knew couldn't stay with me. The words are about honesty and freedom inside the heart.

  Buffy Sainte-Marie

  Song, Falling In Love, Honesty

  7 Copy quote

• The words come. Usually, it's a long time before they come. And then when they start to come, it doesn't take so long for it to be finished. It takes a long time to begin. And then it sort of gets finished.

  Paul Simon

  Writing, Long, Finished

  6 Copy quote

• Don't wait until you're 'in the mood.' Get into the mood by writing.

  Margaret Atwood

  Writing, Waiting, Mood

  5 Copy quote

• You know, I would say that songwriting is something about the expression of the heart, the intellect and the soul.

  Annie Lennox

  Heart, Expression, Soul

  6 Copy quote

• As a songwriter, I try not to be sloppy; same with the music. You can be very lean, very efficient, so you're not wasting a lot of time getting' to the point. You're saying it with as pure a word or phrase as you can. That's the part that was craft. You refine and refine and refine. Maybe that's why the songs still hang on, because they're very pure. For one thing, they're very short. "Bad Moon Rising" is like 2 minutes and 12 seconds. I would try to do everything as quickly and with as little extra as possible. It was a challenge.

  John Fogerty

  Song, Writing, Moon

  21 Copy quote

• We must begin to make what I call "conscious choices," and to really recognize that we are the same. It's from that place in my heart that I write my songs.

  John Denver

  Inspirational, Song, Writing

  68 Copy quote

• I think it's good if a song has more than one meaning. Maybe that kind of song can reach far more people.

  Syd Barrett

  Music, Song, Stars

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

  88 Copy quote

  Show source

• It was my 16th birthday-my mom and dad gave me my Goya classical guitar that day. I sat down, wrote this song, and I just knew that that was the only thing I could ever really do-write songs and sing them to people. [...] Everything on this record is what I really wanted to say, and I'm back to being the poet I always thought I was.

  Stevie Nicks

  Mom, Song, Dad

  "A Three-Way with Stevies Williams, Nicks, and Wonder". Interview with Brayden Olson, www.vice.com. August 15, 2012.

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• You write a hit the same way you write a flop.

  Alan Jay Lerner

  Writing, Way

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

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

• I don't write songs, songs write me. ... Writing a song can be agony or ecstasy. It can take half an hour or half a year. ... The popular song is America's greatest ambassador.

  Sammy Cahn

  Song, Writing, Years

  9 Copy quote

• Songwriting is like going to church. I'm connecting to something, and it's rewarding in really important ways. I don't need to share it with anyone to feel good about it.

  Juliana Hatfield

  Feel Good, Important, Church

  5 Copy quote

• I knew that collaborating on songwriting would be difficult for a lot of people, because I was known very much, for my independence and the fact that I wrote these quirky songs that were not typical structure, not typical sound - you know, really original stuff.

  Liz Phair

  Song, People, Independence

  5 Copy quote

• If you're in it because you love it and you have to do it, that's the right reason. If you're in it because you want to get rich or famous, don't do it. People often say that my first years in Nashville, when I wasn't getting anything cut, were tough. Hell, those were great years.

  Kris Kristofferson

  Writing, Cutting, Great Year

  34 Copy quote