Song Quotes

Songs are like movies to me, and so you put yourself in the movie. You become a character in the movie.

I can't wait to be a mom and a wife, and explore that phase of life. And also see how it affects and influences my song writing and creativity.

I only wrote one song in jail. But I'm writing new album - you're going to feel the entire 11 months of what I went through on this album. I'm venting my anger.

What excites me is the idea of doing a record that's pretty clean and focused on songs. I've rushed a lot with previous albums and there's not a rush now - it's not a race.

I base my track-listing and what songs I pick by what my fans expect from me and what they want and what I think they want.

Honky Tonk Badonkadonk wasnt some serious song, but it was huge! It was funny.

It's like a dream sometimes, a song just pops into your head and you can't tell if it's something you heard or it's new and you got to write it down.

I can't figure out why fans keep coming, maybe it's because they dig the songs.

I don't how many of us get to go to the next level, and I don't know how many people on my level get to go to the next level after that. I think it is the songs that can take you there.

I think one of the reasons that I love the fans that have stuck around, because I really enjoy writing different kinds of songs. I don't know if I write them well or not, but I can write them.

I met PJ Harvey when I was in England, and the first thing I want to do when I meet a songwriter I admire is to ask them how do they receive songs.

Even the sad roots songs have a lot of good stories to them, and the murder ballads are good too. I mean, who doesn't like to watch a nice gory murder film on TV?

Sometimes you do know where the ideas are coming from and sometimes you don't. You might get a song coming through that you just don't know about.

If you're a pop singer, you don't need to evolve. You just get a set together, have some hit songs and play them over and over.

Whether you're writing a book or a song or whatever, you've got to be involved in it. It's got to come from the heart I think...that's what it's all about.

I think I opened up an area with Astral Weeks that hit a lot of peoples' nerves. But you can't really say that they're my favorite songs.

I find it extremely difficult talking about my songs because there's so many different things that can make a song come together.

A lot of things come together to make up a song. It's just images.

If the spirit comes through in a Madame George type of song, that's what the spirit says. You have very little to do with it. You're like an instrument for what's coming through.

I felt kind of bored at the prospect of writing some more of my own songs because I really wasn't saying what I wanted to say.

The theory is that you don't play a song the same way twice because it's jazz. That's where I'm coming from.

Writing 'This Is Who I Am...' I wanted to write a song about where I'm at, that I have accepted where I have come to and I wanted my fans to be able to connect to it too. I want them to stand proud!

My songs are a direct route into my brain and my heart.

I relate to all of my songs and I'm inspired by everything going on around me. Music comes from all different aspects of my life.

The songs from your childhood, when you hear them you get chills all over.

If I had my choice, I'd pick a song that tells a story every time. There is a great deal of pleasure in doing the vocal on a number that you can put feeling into.

As I was not a good singer - I have started to sing. And because no one could write an appropriate song for me - I started to write songs by myself.

My songs are very much a kind of psychoanalysis. I am very introspective in my songs, and I am working through, always.

When you ask a songwriter, "What's your favorite song?" he goes, "The next one."

I've always been the high harmony singer. It's never my job to know the verses! But I know the chorus of every song ever made.

At the end of the day, all people want to do is hear a great singer sing a great song. They don't care about what vocal changes it went through. You can't screw up a great song and a great singer.

I've been doing that song ["Live Wire"] on my own for years, so no, I'm not worried about [high notes] at all.

I can't say no. But I did say, "OK. But have another song just in case."

Music-hall songs provide the dull with wit, just as proverbs provide them with wisdom.

Now I will do nothing but listen to accrue what I hear into this song. To let sounds contribute toward it. I hear the sound I love. The sound of the human voice. I hear all sounds running together.

When I play stuff for my wife she'll be like, "No, not that song. No way."

You don't actually have to understand the song to be emotionally moved and uplifted, whereas with language it becomes quirky and analytical.

If you have a song that you think sounds like another song you should contact the publishing company and say I have a song here, let's cut a deal that lets everyone walk away feeling good.

It's always a live experience - anything that happens around you. It's so easy to just put it to a song.

I would describe my style of songwriting as classic. I learned very early on and have stuck to the core principles of song structure regardless of which genre I'm writing in.

A good song can be produced in several different genres.

All I want to do is write songs about funny characters I made up.

I've felt love from certain songs that I've wanted to experience from other people - where I know that love may never happen - and I want to give that to someone else.

I'm able to come and do a new sound and grow even more and make greater songs because my song-making abilities have grown.

I look for something universal in songs rather than something personal. I look for something that will give us a platform for live improvisation.

I make the songs and part of making them is singing them. But what you hear is not me. It's the song. It's through me.

I write a song to be recorded. And to some extent to be performed, but definitely more to be recorded than performed, because the recording will last longer than a performance.

I feel much more physically connected to my voice, and I like the physicality of the voice, and how the voice can physically occupy a song.

It's good when someone says, "Would you write a song for this purpose," or "would you record a song for this purpose," or "would you help me realize this song," again, for this purpose.

When you're a songwriter, people wonder about your personal life and the meanings behind the songs, and that can feel pretty invasive, so you become protective about your inner world.