Quotessence
Home / Authors / Richard Thompson
Richard Thompson

Richard Thompson Quotes

Songwriter

Filter quotes by topic

AllSongPeopleThinkingAudienceWritingKindAcousticsIfsGladGuitarHumansNiceSometimesTryingWantDifferentDirectFallFirstsFun

Famous Richard Thompson Quotes

“I think there are shades of political songs; some are more subtle and can be more effective for being subtle, for being more metaphorical. I've written a lot of songs like that, where it's not really clear if it's a war song or a relationship song. The metaphor can be the most powerful thing of all, but sometimes you have to speak more clearly to more people, and I think this is one of those times.”

PeopleThinkingWarSometimesPoliticalSongSpeakPowerfulMetaphorMost PowerfulMetaphorical
Author:Richard Thompson
Create image

“An audience will let you know if a song communicates. If you see them kind of falling asleep during the song, or if they clap at the end of a song, then they're telling you something about the song. But you can have a good song that doesn't communicate. Perhaps that isn't a song that you can sing to people; perhaps that's a song that you sing to yourself. And some songs are maybe for a small audience, and some songs are for a wide audience. But the audience will let you know pretty quickly.”

PeopleKindSongFallAudienceCommunicateFalling Asleep
Author:Richard Thompson
Create image

“If you're up there performing a song for the first time, it's as if you're hearing it through their ears. You become acutely self-conscious of the song in performance, so that's a good thing before recording. But I like to have some surprises for the audience; I don't want the audience to know everything that's going to be on the record, because these days, with the Internet, people become avid collectors of pre-knowledge.”

PeopleSongAudienceInternetFirst TimeGood ThingsSurprisePerforming
Author:Richard Thompson
Create image

“People want to be the first with the record, they want to be the first to know which songs are on the record, all that kind of stuff. So I like to just stall them a bit. Personally, I love the idea of an album that's completely new, that no one's heard any free downloads, any pre-record releases, all that kind of stuff, and nothing's been played on the radio. Totally virgin, you know, a sealed record. That's my ideal, but it's very hard to get anybody else to agree to do that.”

PeopleKindSongAgree
Author:Richard Thompson
Create image

“I think it's absolutely possible to write a song and go somewhere where no one's been before, uncharted territory. In terms of content, I see limitations where there should be none. I know there are things I wouldn't write about, but that shouldn't be the case. You should be able to make a song out of anything, out of any situation.”

ThinkingKnowsShouldWritingAbleSongTermSituationCasesLimitationSongwritingTerritoryUnchartedUncharted Territory
Author:Richard Thompson
Create image