Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by John Prine

Quote by John Prine

“Some of the songs come so fully, it's like they are pre-packaged. There have been a couple that came in the middle of the night. And I thought, jeez, I'll never forget that. And went back to sleep, and it was gone. You'll hear something years later that another songwriter that you respect writes, and you go, jeez, I think that was the remnants of that song that got sent to me.”

Quote by John Prine

Create image

Author

John Prine
John Prine

John Prine is a renowned American singer-songwriter, born on October 10, 1946. His music style blends elements of country, bluegrass, and folk, known for his profound lyrics and distinctive voice. Prine's songs often explore the lives and emotions of ordinary people, winning the hearts of his audience. more

You May Also Like

“I edit as I go. Especially when I go to commit it to paper. I prefer a typewriter even to a computer. I don't like it. There's no noise on the computer. I like a typewriter because I am such a slow typist. I edit as I am committing it to paper. I like to see the words before me and I go, "Yeah, that's it." They appear before me and they fit. I don't usually take large parts out. If I get stuck early in a song, I take it as a sign that I might be writing the chorus and don't know it. Sometimes,you gotta step back a little bit and take a look at what you're doing.”

IfsKnowsWritingLooksLittlesSometimesMightSongBitsStepsFitPaperComputerLittle BitYeahStuckCommitNoiseSongwritingEditsTypewritersChorus
Author:John Prine
Create image

“Writin songs is like a mystery. The most difficult thing to do is have a good idea. If you have a decent idea, the songs are the easy part. Actually having something to say is the hard part. If you get an idea for a song, then it pulls you along. There are just some ideas that you get that are really hard to edit out; it's hard to stop thinking about some bad ideas. So you just finish it and you end up putting it on a record.”

IfsThinkingIdeasEndsHardSongEasyDifficultRecordsMysteryThings To DoDecentSongwritingGood IdeasDifficult ThingsEditsBad Ideas
Author:Lyle Lovett
Create image

“You give me a credit to which I have no claim in calling me "the writer of the Constitution of the United States." This was not, like the fabled Goddess of Wisdom, the offspring of a single brain. It ought to be regarded as the work of many heads and many hands.”

GivingStatesHandsUnitedBrainUnited StatesOughtCallingConstitutionClaimsGive MeCreditGoddessOffspringTotal WarConstitution Of The United StatesConstitutional ConventionMany Hands
Book:1829-1836
Create image

“Whatever may be the judgement pronounced on the competency of the architects of the Constitution, or whatever may be the destiny of the edifice prepared by them, I feel it a duty to express my profound and solemn conviction . . . that there never was an assembly of men, charged with a great and arduous trust, who were more pure in their motives, or more exclusively or anxiously devoted to the object committed to them.”

MenFeelsMayDestinyObjectsDutyPureConstitutionPreparedProfoundCommittedConvictionJudgementMotiveArchitectDevotedSolemnAssemblyEdificeCompetenciesConstitutional Convention
Book:Journal of the Federal Convention
Create image

“The example of changing a constitution by assembling the wise men of the state, instead of assembling armies, will be worth as much to the world as the former examples we had give them. The constitution, too, which was the result of our deliberation, is unquestionably the wisest ever yet presented to men.”

MenWorldGivingStatesResultsWiseExampleConstitutionArmyFormerWisestDeliberationAssemblingConstitutional Convention
Book:Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts on War and Revolution : Annotated Correspondence
Create image

“It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle, that the Delegates from so many different States . . . should unite in forming a system of national Government, so little liable to well founded objections.”

ShouldWellsLittlesDifferentStatesGovernmentMiracleObjectionsLiableDelegatesConstitutional Convention
Book:The Writings of George Washington: pt.III. Private letters from the time Washington resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the army to that of his inauguration as president of the United States: December, 1783-April, 1789. 1835
Create image

“No morn ever dawned more favorable than ours did; and no day was every more clouded than the present! Wisdom, and good examples are necessary at this time to rescue the political machine from the impending storm.”

PoliticalExampleMachinesStormRescueGood ExamplesCloudedConstitutional Convention
Book:The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private, Selected and Published from the Original Manuscripts; with a Life of the Author, Notes, and Illustrations
Create image