Tracy Chapman Quotes

Growing up in Cleveland, I learned about singing from my mother, who had once sung professionally and who admired Mahalia Jackson and Aretha Franklin.

People's real hopes and dreams can be distorted and misdirected and packaged until you're not sure what you really want or what you even really need.

Some folks call her a runaway. A failure in the race. But she knows where her ticket takes her. She will find her place in the sun

I don't try to project any image at all, other than the person that I am.

Everyone is looking for connections between the songs. I don't usually approach a record as a concept. There's no overriding theme I'm trying to represent. It's all about the individual songs.

We all must live our lives always feeling, always thinking the moment has arrived.

I don't want someone to squeeze me, that might take away my life. Just want someone to hold me, and we'll rock through the night.

Love is hate
War is Peace
No is Yes
And we're all free.

It's time to start all over/make a new beginning.

My older sister encouraged me from early on and bought me one of the first guitars I had. She listened to all of the crappy songs that I wrote when I was 8 years old and encouraged me to keep doing it.

I picked up the guitar at 11, but even before then, I was writing songs on the organ.

A lot of kids spent more time out of school than in, but I always loved school and thought it was my way out of Cleveland, and out of poverty.

I'm not sure if the next song I write is going to be about love or a song about a tree.

Music was never just a hobby for me. I'd pick up a guitar every day to work on whatever I was writing at the time. I would put my ideas in songs the way some people might put them in diaries or journals.

I think it's important, if you are an artist, to use your music to stand up for what you believe in.

Now love's the only thing thats free. We must take it where it's found. Pretty soon it may be costly.

I found myself in the middle of a race riot when I was about 14 years old, and I found someone pointing a gun at me and telling me to run or they'd shoot me.

I love living in California and being able to go to the beach or go to the woods.

Who took away the part so essential to the whole Left you a hollow body Skin and bone.

At this point in my life I'd like to live as if only love mattered.

We have more media than ever and more technology in our lives. It's supposed to help us communicate, but it has the opposite effect of isolating us.

When you feel like you've had a good show, you go backstage and you talk to yourself about it, and if you have a bad show you talk to yourself about it.

I see some recurring themes: things that feel threaded together, some symbolic references, and songs about some of the big questions, like death. There are a lot of references to weather, too!

With other people, you're always swapping music. Somebody is always listening to something you've never heard. It's a great way to hear all sorts of new things.

All That You Have Is Your Soul

Oh my mama told me
'Cause she say she learned the hard way
Say she wanna spare the children
She say don't give or sell your soul away
'Cause all that you have is your soul

Don't be tempted by the shiny apple
Don't you eat of a bitter fruit
Hunger only for a taste of justice
Hunger only for a world of truth
'Cause all that you have is your soul

I was a pretty young girl once
I had dreams I had high hopes
I married a man he stole my heart away
He gave his love but what a high price I paid
And all that you have is your soul

Why was I such a young fool
Thought I'd make history
Making babies was the best I could do
Thought I'd made something that could be mine forever
Found out the hard way one can't possess another
And all that you have is your soul

I thought thought that I could find a way
To beat the system
To make a deal and have no debts to pay
I'd take it all take it all I'd run away
Me for myself first class and first rate
But all that you have is your soul

Here I am waiting for a better day
A second chance
A little luck to come my way
A hope to dream a hope that I can sleep again
And wake in the world with a clear conscience and clean hands
'Cause all that you have is your soul

All that you have
All that you have
All that yo

The songs are not necessarily autobiographical. A lot of songs are a combination of influences. It might be some part of my life, or something I've felt, or something somebody's told me. It all comes together.

You got a fast car
But is it fast enough so we can fly away
We gotta make a decision
We leave tonight or live and die this way.

As a child, I spent a lot of time at the library.

Why do babies starve /When there's enough food to feed the world /Why when there's so many of us /Are there people still alone

After it's finished, sometimes I can trace a path that goes back to the possible source of inspiration.

I dressed up as a veterinarian for a Halloween costume party. I had the lab coat. I got a couple of stuffed animals for patients and put bandages on them.

What does the future look like if the heads of society ask our young people to risk their lives for questionable causes? I think it looks rather bleak.

I'm not sure about anything as far as religion and spirituality go.

I'm never sure if I'll ever write another song, what the song will be about and if what initially sparked the beginning of a song might complete it.

Maybe it's naive to say, but it almost seems like, in the past, people tried to sell you something you would actually need, like a hammer or a broom or a toothbrush. But now there's this notion that they can sell you anything. And all they have to do is convince you that you need it.

I end up writing about all kinds of things. I never make an attempt to write about anything in particular. I don't have a little list of topics to write about.

I meet people in my daily life, people who seem to experience some change and some growth on a personal level, and that gives me hope.

If you are living a life that feels right to you, if you're willing to take creative chances or a creative path that feels like it's mostly in keeping with your sensibilities, you know, aesthetic and artistic, then that's what matters.

I never assumed I would have that commercial success, so it was a total surprise. And honestly, I never assumed that it would ever happen again.

I often write either really early in the morning, or really late at night.

Words don't come easily, like forgive me.

There are good reasons for being in jail - for protesting.

I'm a hopeful cynic.

I'm still thinking and hoping there's an opportunity for people to have better lives and that significant change can occur.