Best Songwriting Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 11

“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.”

Thinking Writing Years Has Beens Night Song Sleep Forget Gone Middle Couple Songwriting Never Forget Songwriters Middle Of The Night Remnants

Author:John Prine

“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.”

Ifs Knows Writing Looks Littles Sometimes Might Song Bits Steps Fit Paper Computer Little Bit Yeah Stuck Commit Noise Songwriting Edits Typewriters Chorus

Author:John Prine

“I think you can refine what you do, and become more consistent. And you write better songs that have a better shape and a better feeling. You evolve into and out of things, and go through stages, but, ultimately, you do improve.”

Thinking Writing Feelings Song Stage Shapes Evolve Consistent Songwriting

Author:Richard Thompson

“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.”

Ifs Thinking Ideas Ends Hard Song Easy Difficult Records Mystery Things To Do Decent Songwriting Good Ideas Difficult Things Edits Bad Ideas

Author:Lyle Lovett

“You know, it's a pretty mysterious thing still, why you start the songs you start, and the specific flavor of them, the nature of them. I don't know about other writers, but, for me, it's still somewhat out of my control. It's not really a logical process.”

Knows Stills Song Process Mysterious Logical Songwriting Flavor Mysterious Things

Author:Gillian Welch

“Apropos, is not the Scotch phrase 'Auld Lang Syne' exceedingly expressive? I shall give you the verses on the other sheet. The words of 'Auld Lang Syne' are good, but the music is an old air, the rudiments of the modern tune of that name. ... Dare to be honest and fear no labor. ... Opera is where a man gets stabbed in the back, and instead of dying, he sings. ... Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure thrill the deepest notes of woe. ... Critics! Those cut-throat bandits in the paths of fame.”

“I sought to reform minstrelsy among refined people by making words suitable to their taste, instead of the trashy and really offensive words which belong to some songs of that order. ... Some of my songs should be performed in a pathetic, not a comic style.”

People Should Song Order Style Taste Reform Comic Songwriting Offensive Pathetic Suitable Refined

Author:Stephen Foster

“You can't write a song out of thin air. You have to feel and know what you are writing about. ... Talent is only a starting point. You've got to keep working that talent. Someday I'll reach for it and it won't be there. ... Life is 10 percent what you make it, and 90 percent how you take it. ... The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success. ... After you get what you want you don't want it. ... Listen kid, take my advice, never hate a song that has sold half a million copies. ... The song is ended, but as the songwriter wrote, the melody lingers on.”

“My sole inspiration is a telephone call from a director. ... (when asked who wrote 'Some Enchanted Evening') Rodgers and Hammerstein, if you can imagine it taking two men to write one song. ... Good authors, too, who once knew better words now use only four-letter words writing prose. ... Brush up your Shakespeare and they'll all kowtow.”

Ifs Men Writing Two Use Inspiration Song Four Imagine Directors Letters Evening Prose Songwriting Sole Brushes Telephones Enchanted Four Letter Words Good Authors

Author:Cole Porter

“Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean the bastards aren't out to get you. ... Painters of paintings, writers of books, never could tell the half. In each scenario, you can depend on the end where the lovers agree. Where's my Lothario? Where does he roam, with his dome Vaselined as can be?”

Mean Doe Book Ends Half Painting Depends Lovers Agree Painter Songwriting Scenarios Paranoid Domes

Author:Lorenz Hart

“If anybody was Mr. Jazz it was Louis Armstrong. He was the epitome of jazz and always will be. He is what I call an American standard, an American original. ... I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues. ... I don't need time, I need a deadline. ...There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind. ... Music is my mistress, and she plays second fiddle to no one.”

Ifs Needs Kind Two Play Energy Music Is Standards Originals Jazz Songwriting Mistress Deadline Time Of Need Armstrong Fiddle Epitome

Author:Duke Ellington

“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.”

Writing Years America Song Hours Half Songwriting Ecstasy Agony Ambassadors Popular Song Half A Year

Author:Sammy Cahn

“When I wrote the song, I had the sea near Bombay in mind. We stayed at a hotel by the sea, and the fishermen come up at five in the morning and they were all chanting. And we went on the beach and we got chased by a mad dog-big as a donkey. ... I think that songwriting changed when groups started spending more time in the studio. ... I've written so many songs about Englishmen, I have to go elsewhere. ... Our repertoire consisted of rhythm and blues, sort of country rhythm and blues, Sonny Terry things.”

“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.”

“You can't ask me to explain the lyrics because I won't do it...I always believed that I have something important to say and I said it. That's why I survived because I still believe I've got something to say. ... I don't like overdubs, never liked them. ... The music business doesn't interest me anymore...Don't the people you're around shape the music, is that what you're saying? Everything does. ... I'm not joking around when I've said occasionally, trying to learn how to play a D chord properly has been a very big thing for me.”

“I have a weird life because I live on songwriting royalties, which are a strange income. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn't. ... I want to grow up with my audience. I don't expect to be getting through to the younger pop crowd. I learned that from Paul Simon. ... When you blame yourself, you learn from it. If you blame someone else, you don't learn nothing, cause hey, it's not your fault, it's his fault, over there. ... People have told me songs I've written have changed their life. That's remarkable. That keeps your faith.”

“But there's a thin line between songwriting and arranging. ... Recording at home enables one to eliminate the demo stage, and the presentation stage in the studio, too. ... And I think it's safe to say that the single very impressive figure to me was Merle Haggard. ... Dylan can do no wrong. ... Glenn Gould was my hero. Glenn Gould was my idol. I loved him. ... I loved Hendrix. I mean, really, really loved him. As if he were one of the great classical composers. And he was. That's how I saw him.”

“I had this talent for these stupid little teenage songs. I just couldn't get anyone to sing my songs, so I had to sing my own tunes. ... The thing is to be able to outlast the trends. ... They are actually manufactured entertainment groups. They are a product of technology. What you are listening to is technology.”

Littles Able Song My Own Technology Groups Talent Stupid Products Listening Entertainment Tunes Songwriting Trends Teenage

Author:Paul Anka

“I always try to write a song, I never just want to write a record. Originally I was not writing songs for myself. ....And I can say this, most of the people who have recorded my songs are songwriters themselves. ... Even if I don't release it myself, somebody else might hear it and want to record it. When you write a song, it gives it that potential. When you write a song, a song has longevity. ... So I wanted to sing inspirational music, and that's exactly how I approached it-only the words have been changed to declare my relationship with God. Songwriting is my gift from God.”

“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. ... I am always writing a potpourri of music. I want to give the world escapism through the wonder of great music and to reach the masses. ... And I remember going to the record studio and there was a park across the street and I'd see all the children playing and I would cry because it would make me sad that I would have to work instead.”

“People are always asking me what my lyrics mean. Does it mean this, does it mean that, that's all anybody wants to know. F**k them, darling. I say what any decent poet would say if you dared ask him to analyze his work: If you see it, dear, then it's there. ... I think my melodies are superior to my lyrics. ... I was never too keen on the British music press. They've called us a supermarket hype, and they used to suggest that we didn't write our own songs.”

People Ifs Thinking Knows Want Writing Mean Doe Used Song Asks Poet Asking Presses Dear British Superiors Decent Melody Songwriting Darling Hype Supermarkets British Music

Author:Freddie Mercury

“There are no limitations with a song. To me a song is a little piece of art. It can be whatever you like it to be. You can write the simplest song, and that's lovely, or you can just write a song that is abstract art. ... A lot of my songs are very serious, I'm like dead serious about certain things and I feel that I'm writing about the world, through my own eyes. ... I have a love for simple basic song structure, although sometimes you'd never know it. ... Most of the songs I wrote at night. I would just wake in the middle of the night. That's when I found the space to write.”

“I consider myself to be an inept pianist, a bad singer, and a merely competent songwriter. ... I'm probably writing music now for the same reason as I started writing songs when I was 14-to meet women. ... If you make music for the human needs you have within yourself, then you do it for all humans who need the same things. You enrich humanity with the profound expression of these feelings. ... My songs are like my kids.”

Ifs Needs Writing Humans Reason Feelings Kids Song Humanity Expression Profound Singers Songwriting Songwriters Need You Competent Writing Songs Pianist Human Needs Writing Music

Author:Billy Joel

“It would be nice to abandon the verse-chorus-bridge structure completely, and make it so none of these things are definable. ... Make up new names for them. Instead of a bridge, you can call it a highway, or an overpass. ... Music should never be harmless. ... I remember from my earliest years, people speaking, you know, in a certain kind of rhythm and telling stories and sharing experiences in a way that was different in Indian country than it was other places. And I was really struck by this and obviously very affected by it, because it's always come out in my songs.”

“My vocation is more in composition really than anything else-building up harmonies using the guitar, orchestrating the guitar like an army, a guitar army. ... I always felt if we were going in to do an album, there should already be a lot of structure already made up so we could get on with that and see what else happened. ... I always believed in the music we did and that's why it was uncompromising. ... I don't think the critics could understand what we were doing.”

Ifs Thinking Should Made Felt Happened Building Army Harmony Structure Critics Guitar Albums Songwriting Composition Vocation Always Believe Building Up Uncompromising

Author:Jimmy Page

“Everybody wants to write a hit song, but in Nashville people want to write the best song, which was my original intention as a singer/songwriter. ... I left because I could no longer make records that sounded less and less like me. I tried to please people instead of believing in my own strength, until the only thing I could do was walk away.”

People Want Writing Believe Song Left My Own Walks Records Please Originals Intention Singers Like Me Songwriting Songwriters Singer Songwriters Nashville

Author:Melissa Manchester

“I learned how music works dealing with Jermaine Dupri, and I learned how image works dealing with Puff Daddy. ... Singing is an acting role within itself...I've gone through a lot of trial and error to find what works and what doesn't. With that comes an understanding of how to offer the same opportunities to other artists. ... In my opinion the world is in need of real soul music. ... I'm a flamboyant type of guy, a cooler version of Liberace. ... I'm a younger Morgan Freeman. ... I've been working so hard, I'm about to have a Mariah Carey.”

“What I do now is all my dad's fault, because he bought me a guitar as a boy, for no apparent reason. ... I wrote some of my best love songs ever when I was unhappy and my saddest love songs when I was very much in love. When I wrote 'You're in My Heart', which is an uplifting song, I had just broken up with-Now who had I broken up with?. ... Half the battle is selling music, not singing it. It's the image, not what you sing.”

Heart Reason Song Half Boys Broken Dad My Heart Battle Singing Faults Guitar My Dad Unhappy Selling Uplifting Songwriting Best Love Saddest Broken Up

Author:Rod Stewart

“I knew I had to have a hit. I would get no more chances. Analyzing what they had in common I discovered they had many similar elements: harmonic rhythm, placement of the chord changes, choice of harmonic progressions, similar instrumentation, vocal phrases, drum fills, content, even the timbre of the lead solo voice. I decided to write a song that incorporated all these elements in one record.”

Writing Song Choices Voice Chance Common Records Elements Decided Rhythm Phrases Songwriting Solo Chords Vocal Progression Analyzing Placement Instrumentation Timbre

Author:Neil Sedaka

“All the songs that were written for that album are just all our first sophomore songs. So they're all from real life. Very sweet and very innocent. I think the theme of the album probably was just that it was our first record. ... Back when we were first making records, you didn't just make the music, you put a great deal of energy into the way it looked, and every word that was written on the whole thing.”

Thinking Way Firsts Real Whole Song Energy Deals Records Written Sweet Albums Real Life Innocent Theme Songwriting Back When Sophomore Very Sweet

Author:Cat Stevens

“I like myself better when I'm writing regularly. ... I was influenced a lot by those around me-there was a lot of singing that went on in the cotton fields. ... I'm a country songwriter and we write cry-in-your-beer songs. That's what we do. Something that you can slow dance to...I never gave up on country music because I knew what I was doing was not that bad. ... Most of the stuff I've read about me has been true.”

Writing Has Beens Country Song Stuff Cry Fields Music Is Singing Beer Songwriting Songwriters Gave Up Cotton Cotton Fields

Author:Willie Nelson

“If you told the truth, that was all well and good and if you told the un-truth, well, that's still well and good. Folk songs had taught me that.”

Ifs Wells Stills Song Taught Folks Songwriting Folk Songs

Book:Chronicles

Source: Chronicles

“Make the verses flow together. If a following verse has nothing to do with the previous, you may lose our listener/reader. You want a smooth flow to hear or read, and it's easier to memorize.”

Ifs Want Writing May Together Loses Reader Easier Flow Following Songwriting Verses Listeners Smooth

Author:Margaret Atwood

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

Writing Waiting Mood Songwriting

Author:Margaret Atwood

“Write down the thoughts and even more, write down a specific line. If you don't, it'll fly away forever.”

Ifs Writing Lines Forever Songwriting Fly Away

Author:Margaret Atwood

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

Writing Heart Might Brain Songwriting Polish

Author:Margaret Atwood

“The reader cannot see into your heart. He will know only what you tell him. Make the blind see your words. Make the hard-hearted feel. Make the deaf hear.”

Knows Feels Writing Heart Hard Reader Blind Songwriting Deaf Hearted

Author:Margaret Atwood

“Don't be married to a line or verse if it can't rhyme, fit the meter, or doesn't fit the outline.”

Ifs Writing Lines Fit Married Songwriting Verses Rhyme Being Married Outlines Meter

Author:Margaret Atwood

“Things musicals taught me: All your problems will go away if you sing about it.”

Ifs Writing Problem Taught Going Away Songwriting

Author:Margaret Atwood

“Those in power write the history while those who suffer write the songs.”

Writing Suffering Song Songwriting

Author:Frank Harte

“Years ago when I was in a cover band and we were playing dances, that was quite a different thing. You were there as part of an event. When you're a songwriter, you are the event. So it's a little bit of a different focus.”

Writing Years Littles Different Bits Focus Events Band Little Bit Years Ago Different Things Songwriting Songwriters

Author:Andy Wilkinson

“In the 80s, in the cover band I was in, we'd slip in original material. If you didn't say anything about it, people just didn't care. Sometimes they'd ask where that came from and you'd tell them, but you still had to play a bunch of Willie, Waylon, and Merle.”

People Ifs Writing Stills Sometimes Play Care Asks Materials Band Originals Bunch Songwriting Slips Say Anything 80s

Author:Andy Wilkinson

“Some things need to be a song. Some things need to be a play. Some things need to be a painting. Some things need to be-though I'd never be a choreographer-some things might ought to be a dance [laughs]. I've found that exploring an idea in different ways, it gives you different opportunities.”

Way Needs Giving Writing Ideas Different Play Might Song Found Opportunity Laughing Painting Ought Different Ways Songwriting Exploring Choreographers

Author:Andy Wilkinson

“I find on songwriting, I really have to work at making sure I'm not imitating myself. You know? Which happens to all of us. When an artist becomes really famous, you'll start listening to songs and saying "Wait...I've heard that before" and it'll be one of theirs. We all fall into that rut. If you don't have something to force you out of it, then it's kind of a dangerous business.”

Ifs Knows Writing Kind Happens Artist Song Fall Force Waiting Heard Dangerous Listening Songwriting Imitating Ruts

Author:Andy Wilkinson

“I had to really do some studying and examination of my own songwriting and I realized that, there's not a formula by any stretch of the imagination and aren't any rules, but there are principles. The first one is that art is a process, not a product. In fact, that holds true for damn near everything we do in life. The product is just something that happens. If you're faithful to the process, the product takes care of itself.”

Ifs Writing Firsts Art Facts Happens Care Process Imagination My Own Principles Study Products Art Is Take Care I Realized Faithful Damn Songwriting Formulas Examination

Author:Andy Wilkinson

“So I realized when I was successful in a piece, it was because I didn't abandon a notion early on what it ought to be, and I let it take me along. So I've had songs that started out as being about the environment and ended up being love songs and love songs that ended up being about the environment. I've had things that I thought would be a poem and realized that it was just too big for that. I've got to do something larger and it became a play. I wrote one poem that started a whole play.”

Writing Play Whole Bigs Would Be Song Successful Environment Pieces Ought And Love Notion I Realized Abandon Songwriting Take Me

Author:Andy Wilkinson

“We singer-songwriter people, we're used to getting up and doing our own thing in front of people, and we're it. We're the band, artist, writer, producer, front man. We're the whole thing. You develop, it's not smugness, but this self-reliance, that can limit your creativity. When you're willing and able to invite others into it, you wind up getting a piece of work that's bigger and better than anything you ever imagined it could be.”

“I say to my students that I can't teach them how to write a good song, but I can teach you how to write a better song. Talking about this idea of it being a process. By going back and not settling for something and find a way to step back from your songs-which is a very hard thing to do-but when you're stuck or you can't move forward, start doing some polishing.”

Way Writing I Can Ideas Hard Moving Song Process Talking Steps Teach Students Stuck Moving Forward Settling Things To Do Songwriting Hard Things Not Settling

Author:Andy Wilkinson

“Great readers, great listeners, and all have great work ethics. ... They work hard at what they do and they're devout to their reading and listening.”

Writing Hard Reading Hard Work Listening Reader Ethics Songwriting Listeners Work Ethic Great Work Great Work Ethic

Author:Andy Wilkinson

“Kids who are least impressive in my class are the ones who only listen to one kind of music. They only listen to country or only to rap or to gospel or anything. It's a sad thing. I try really hard to get them to go out and listen to things. It's amazing what you learn. ... I'm still trying to learn. It's not like I'm going to be a calypso singer. That's not going to happen, but I'm sure there's something in that, that I can learn from and apply to my own work.”

Writing Trying Kind Stills I Can Country Hard Happens Kids My Own Class Rap Singers Songwriting Impressive Sad Things Calypso

Author:Andy Wilkinson

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Songwriting Quotes