Songwriter Quotes

As a songwriter, you try your best to write a good song, and you like nothing better than hearing a good song. It's easy to admire a great song, and you want to share out of enthusiasm. ~ Lyle Lovett

I'm more of an artist and a songwriter than I am a DJ. That word seems a little bit - well, it doesn't really describe what I do. ~ Kaskade

SPEAK OF TROUBLE highlights the abilities of Lowell Sostomi as singer/songwriter and brings together a talented band of musicians with amazing dexterity, loads of energy, and very original arrangements. Im impressed. ~ Gordon Lightfoot

I'm almost a black singer. And without the backbeat, it's singer/songwriter. There's a definite choice to be made there, every time. And I love the sex of singing with a beat; I like the sexiness of it. I think it's really where I'm from. ~ John Waite

Ryan Alvanos is an offbeat, insanely inventive singer-songwriter who sneaks up on you with a sly wit and subtle power. ~ Steve Morse

I wanted to say all these things about how you just have to hold on to the things you love and let go of all the rest. ~ Charlotte Eriksson

I'm a commercial-minded songwriter. I'm here to make a living and be on the radio. ~ Shane McAnally

I'm doing more deep listening, which is part of the role or job of the songwriter. I think with a lot of songwriting, songs sing themselves to you tonally and also lyrically. And it's not necessarily your own visual memories that are writing the song. It's like there are words that you can catch out there and you have to be able to see and hear them. ~ Mirah

I don't consider myself a songwriter, I've tried, I've written a few with friends but that's an art form I'm gonna leave to guys like Jimmy Ritchey and Kevin Fowler. ~ Mark Chesnutt

My only concern about art collaborations is that I never thought of myself as an Artist. My tax forms say Musician/Songwriter. ~ Sufjan Stevens

I appreciate a songwriter like Morrissey with so much restraint. ~ Zooey Deschanel

A lot of people, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry and a lot of people have written for other people, and of course Bruno Mars. So I think it's a great way to break into the industry and show people what you can do and show them your talent and people tend to listen a little differently to your own music as an artist, when you've proven yourself as a good songwriter for other artists. ~ Bonnie McKee

I'm a great believer in not over-thinking lyrics. You might become technically better as a songwriter, but you lose what originally made your songs great. ~ Paul Stanley

People are going to say, 'Well, it's not very truthful.' But a songwriter doesn't care about what's truthful. What he cares about is what should've happened, what could've happened. That's its own kind of truth. It's like people who read Shakespeare plays, but they never see a Shakespeare play. I think they just use his name. ~ Bob Dylan

I learn my world through writing. ~ Charlotte Eriksson

One of the greatest tools you have as a songwriter is anonymity. If someone knows too much about the songwriter, they don't get to insert their own characters. I don't want the audience thinking about the gay guy who wrote the song. ~ Shane McAnally

It should be if you're a good singer and a good songwriter, you should have your spot. You get everybody trying to release the prettiest guy, but that doesn't mean they're the best artist. Most of the time the true artists are just normal old dudes. ~ Randy Houser

That little Miley Cyrus ... she's like a little Elvis. The kids love her because she's Hannah Montana, but what people don't realize about her is she is such a fantastic singer and songwriter. She writes songs like she's 40 years old! ~ Dolly Parton

Being a songwriter or a painter you're definitely facing your fears. You're facing your fears because you're speaking your truth; you're speaking from your heart. That's something that's not easy to do, you set yourself up for all sorts of criticism or vulnerability but that's why we do it. ~ Brett Dennen

For a songwriter, you don't really go to songwriting school; you learn by listening to tunes. And you try to understand them and take them apart and see what they're made of, and wonder if you can make one, too. ~ Tom Waits

After a while, though, you realize that a whole slew of young singer-songwriter piano players are getting compared to you. That's when you feel the passage of time is occurring. ~ Tori Amos

That's one of the things I love about being a songwriter first, last and always, because whether I do it or not, if someone does a great job on it, my work is done. ~ Carole King

Explaining belief has alwayas been difficult. How do you explain a love and a logic at the heart of the universe when the world is so out of whack? Explaining faith is impossible - vision over visibility - instinct over intellect - a songwriter plays a chore with the faith that he will hear the next one in his head. ~ Edward De Bono

My little boy, West, and my wife, they're my rock and that's the thing that keeps driving me to do better at what I do professionally. There was a time in my career where I had been on this huge roller coaster ride and I'd really got in the spot where I could've hung up it and just been a songwriter. ~ Randy Houser

Find what makes you happy and go for it with all your heart. It will be hard, but I promise it will be worth it. ~ Charlotte Eriksson

I'd love to claim the title of 'songwriter' or 'intellectual,' but the truth is that anything that I ever learned how to do in conjunction with music was purely so that I would have a platform to sing from. ~ Brandi Carlile

Every songwriter lives to have at least one song that a cab driver who asks 'You write anything I know?' will recognize. ~ Rupert Holmes

I'm not just a singer-songwriter doing songs in the key of me. ~ Arlo Guthrie

Undeniably, I'm a country singer; I'm a country songwriter. But I feel like I make country music for people who like country music and for people who don't. ~ Kacey Musgraves

I don't want to be a critic of the world. I want to encourage it. ~ Charlotte Eriksson

My job as a songwriter is to write good songs. ~ Greg Brown

I always loved singing, but I thought it was like drawing - just something you do in your own little corner to calm yourself down. But when my friend, the French songwriter Etienne Daho, listened to my songs, he was so moved that told me that I had to do a demo, share them with the world. ~ Lou Doillon

Lizzy Parks. Check this out, this is brilliantShe is a fantastic jazz singer definitely one to watch from now on, she's got a great voice and she's a great songwriter as well ~ Jamie Cullum

I've always felt, even as a songwriter, that the rhythm of speech is in itself a language for me. ~ Cyndi Lauper

I never saw myself as a spokesman for a generation. It was all a bit heavy for me. I saw myself as a songwriter and wrote for myself, which I still do, and I also wanted to communicate with my audience. ~ Paul Weller

I wasn't really writing anything that I felt was worth it at the end, but then certain things sparked me as a solo writer - to be able to try new things and experiment, and ultimately challenge myself as a performer and as a songwriter and just to commit to ideas, and not be afraid to be myself. ~ William Beckett

I was a different person before I started to write. When I realized I could be a songwriter and that people would listen - that was when I started feeling good in my life. ~ Gwen Stefani

Sometimes it may seem dark, but the absence of the light is a necessary part. ~ Jason Mraz

I feel fortunate that I've had a lot of songs recorded by other people, because I take my songwriting very seriously. It's only those people that have followed me over the years and really know my work that know how serious I am about all of it - including the way I look. You can't take my high heels from me, you can't have my long fingernails, you can't take all this hair from me, because it's part of this thing that I've become. I wouldn't want to give any of it up. Do I have to be ugly to be a songwriter? This is the way I am, and it's what I choose to be. ~ Dolly Parton

I didn't do music to live; I lived so that I could do music. ~ Charlotte Eriksson

I dropped the 'Bundy' with my country music because I wanted it to be two separate things: There's me as a songwriter and a country singer, and there's me as a Broadway performer. ~ Laura Bell Bundy

I never intended to set out and be a singer-songwriter. I just sort of became one because I put out my own record. ~ Jenny Lewis

I know I'm not the best. I'm not the best singer, I'm not the best songwriter, I'm not the best player. ~ Kid Rock

I quite like American music, like The Fray - I'm a massive fan of them - and The Killers. I also like more acoustic stuff like Ed Sheeran; I like this English songwriter James Morrison and another singer called Ben Howard. ~ Louis Tomlinson

I find writing songs hard, because it does not come naturally to me. I never set out to be a songwriter or a singer. ~ Robert Wyatt

Labrinth is a super talented singer, producer, songwriter from London. ~ Estelle

But I really do have a soft spot for the solo shows. Any musician who writes and sings will tell you that's the center of it, that is it. It's almost like there's something church-like about it and you gotta go back there, if you're a songwriter that sings your material. ~ Ben Folds

Music in the church ought to be much more than an emotional stimulant. In fact, this means music and preaching should have the same aim. Both properly pertain to the proclamation of God's Word. Preaching is properly seen as an aspect of or worship. And conversely, music is properly seen as an aspect of the ministry of the Word, just like preaching. Therefore the songwriter ought to be skilled in Scripture and as concerned for theological precision as the preacher. Even more so, because the songs he writes are likely to be sung again and again (unlike a sermon that is preached only once). ~ John F. MacArthur Jr.

The way I work, I'm not a confessional singer-songwriter. ~ Andrew Bird

I'm an American songwriter, and I write from a very American perspective, and so did the records I grew up listening to. ~ Jenny Lewis

John McCutcheon is not only one of the best musicians in the USA, but also a great singer, songwriter, and song leader. And not just incidentally, he is committed to helping hard-working people everywhere to organize and push this world in a better direction. ~ Pete Seeger

The thing about being a songwriter, once you realize you are one, is that to provide ammo, you start to become an observer. ... You're constantly on the alert. That faculty gets trained in you over the years: observing people, how they react to one another, which in a way makes you weirdly distant ... It's a little of Peeping Tom, being a song-writer. ~ Keith Richards

I'm a songwriter. My voice just serves what I'm writing about. So to let all that go, I mean, bring the sensibilities of it actually to the song choices, but to just be the interpreter was incredibly liberating, really fun. ~ Rosanne Cash

Longer is not my best song, it's just a classic love song, and every songwriter always dreams of writing a classic love song. ~ Dan Fogelberg

Music is a handshake where I, as a songwriter, am only part of the equation. I love that, the fact that you can make the song your own. ~ Jon Foreman

As a singer-songwriter who gets up on stage and sings about those things that make me vulnerable is an amazing experience. You get up on stage and effectively take your clothes off in front of thousands of people. ~ James Blunt

I don't think I'm a great songwriter, but I think I've learned a lot about it, and I don't think there's any one way to do it. I don't think I can control it at all. I can just kind of hope that it happens. ~ Norah Jones

I like working with other people but I'm not a songwriter, I'm a producer. ~ Josh Silver

Music is my personal addiction. So much of everything I've done has only been to open more doors for the music itself. It all gets back to the fact that I am, first of all, a songwriter and a singer. ~ Dolly Parton

My brother was a fantastic cheerleader for my development as a musician. He was almost 10 years older than me and would really push me to develop as a songwriter. ~ Tori Amos

Someone like Katy Perry - I like her writing because I listen to music as a songwriter. I like a lot of her songs - like, 'Firework' is a song that I think I could write. ~ Jimmy Cliff

Bob Dylan is quite a songwriter, and a great singer and musician. I won't bother with comparing myself to him, but I will say that I heard his records at a very young age and I still listen to all his records. ~ Frank Black

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. ~ Andy Wilkinson

You can go out and find ways to make your own record and get it out there now. If you really want to, you can be heard. Keep things simple. Learn to go out and play solo. That's a really really good thing to learn, if you're a singer-songwriter. Don't be dependent on a band because you may not always be able to afford one. ~ Steve Earle

Sam was about to travel to Asia with her boyfriend and she was fretting about what her backers would think if she released some of her new songs while she was 'on vacation'. She was worried that posting pictures of herself sipping a Mai Tai was going to make her look like an asshole.

What does it matter? I asked her, where you are whether you're drinking a coffee, a Mai Tai or a bottle of water? I mean, aren't they paying for your songs so that you can... live? Doesn't living include wandering and collecting emotions and drinking a Mai Tai, not just sitting in a room writing songs without ever leaving the house?

I told Sam about another songwriter friend of mine, Kim Boekbinder, who runs her own direct support website through which her fans pay her monthly at levels from $5 to $1,000. She also has a running online wishlist of musical gear and costumes kindof like a wedding registry, to which her fans can contribute money anytime they want.

Kim had told me a few days before that she doesn't mind charging her backers during what she calls her 'staring at the wall time'. She thinks this is essential before she can write a new batch of songs. And her fans don't complain, they trust her process.

These are new forms of patronage, there are no rules and it's messy, the artists and the patrons they are making the rules as they go along, but whether these artists are using crowdfunding (which is basically, front me some money so I can ma ~ Amanda Palmer

He [Patrick Stump] is been a friend of ours for a long time, and when we were talking about working with different producers and songwriters for the record, Patrick's name came up. We were excited to work with him - he's a very gifted lyricist and songwriter, and a really cool guy and it was a pleasure to work with him in the studio. ~ Mark Hoppus

I didn't want to be the crippled songwriter or the crippled singer. I wanted to be the singer or the songwriter who was crippled. I wanted to be larger than life and a man among men. ~ Doc Pomus

As a songwriter you have an umbilical cord to the song and it's hard to expand on your understanding of the lyrics. Whereas when you cover a song you can create your own reason why you're attached to it. ~ K.d. Lang

What is qualified? What have I been qualified for in my life? I haven't been qualified to be a mayor. I'm not qualified to be a songwriter. I'm not qualified to be a TV producer. I'm not qualified to be a successful businessman. And so, I don't know what qualified means. ~ Sonny Bono

It's a songwriter's dream to have a song recorded and run up the charts. ~ Valerie Simpson

I've made music for grownups most of my life as a singer/songwriter - often with my band, Nine Stories - recorded many albums, and 10 years ago I started recording kid's music, too. ~ Lisa Loeb

If anything, I want to be seen as a singer-songwriter rather than a pop artist. ~ Lykke Li

Due to my work as a musician, songwriter, recording artist and author, hundreds of people stream in and out of my basement studio to help me with my creative projects. ~ Dan Hill

A lot of people who were writing when I came through originally as a singer-songwriter have disappeared. ~ Van Morrison

Cash said in return, "I'm a songwriter. I use my imagination. The important thing is the message of the song, not the imagery. ~ Robert Hilburn

I'm not really calculated enough or trained enough as a musician or songwriter to create a style in order to please people. Ultimately, I just have to do what I like to do. ~ Jane Wiedlin

When I started out, I wanted to be Billy Joel. The plan was to be a singer-songwriter of that ilk, and, then, I got waylaid - that's probably an unfair way to say it - from being a rock star by the musical theatre stuff, which I love doing. ~ Jason Robert Brown

I thought [ as a kid], "Maybe I don't want to start a punk band necessarily. I just want to learn to be a great songwriter," and got really into trying to figure out how that could be possible. ~ Ezra Furman

As a songwriter, I try not to be sloppy; same with the music. You can be very lean, very efficient, so you're not wasting a lot of time getting' to the point. You're saying it with as pure a word or phrase as you can. That's the part that was craft. You refine and refine and refine. Maybe that's why the songs still hang on, because they're very pure. For one thing, they're very short. "Bad Moon Rising" is like 2 minutes and 12 seconds. I would try to do everything as quickly and with as little extra as possible. It was a challenge. ~ John Fogerty

I'm English, and I started off as a songwriter, so I can't really escape that - it's there. ~ Damon Albarn

I never was a liner note junkie. I didn't know who produced records or there was such a thing as a straight songwriter. I always assumed that everybody that was singing a song wrote it or made it up. ~ Chris Stapleton

I didn't get into music to become a blues musician, or a country musician. I'm a singer-songwriter. In my book that means I get to do whatever I want. ~ Justin Townes Earle

There's certain things as a songwriter that I don't really care to write about, and there are certain things I won't sing about anymore. There are just so many things that I probably thought was OK for me, or have been in the past, that I would never want my son to think was OK. ~ Randy Houser

I think if you're a good songwriter, that's what you are first - not a star or celebrity. ~ Tom Cochrane

I think with any songwriter the first 1,000 songs are always terrible. ~ Graham Russell

I feel like fans who like old Southern rock and country, and more lyric-driven songs in general, have come to country radio. I think that's why you see country radio growing and albums selling: People are craving a little more of the singer-songwriter stuff going on in country. ~ Charles Kelley

I don't really like to call myself a brand, and I don't like to think of myself as a brand. I'm a singer, a songwriter, a musician and a performer. And an actress, and all the other things that I do. When you add it all together, some might call it a brand, but that's not my focus. ~ Beyonce Knowles

On her new LP, Shatter, Jude Johnstone examines heartbreak and loss with such tender resignation that I wept in acknowledgement of its artful simplicity. A lesson in melodic grace delivered by as fine a singer-songwriter as any I know. ~ Rodney Crowell

I am thrilled to be a member of the Kobalt family. I've never felt so taken care of on every level. As a songwriter, publisher and friend ... there is no better home than Kobalt! ~ Desmond Child

Being a good songwriter means paying attention and sticking your hand out the window to catch the song on the way to someone else's house! ~ Nanci Griffith

I was super brainy and a proper geek at school, but there would always be a boy. But that sort of obsession did turn me into a songwriter. My writing has always come from that feeling of infatuation. ~ Ellie Goulding

I built a reputation as a songwriter in the industry before my own hits. People were used to coming to me for songs. There were songs like 'Clown' and 'Mountains' that were my songs that I wanted to keep. But the record labels saw me as a songwriter. It was hard to get people to believe in me as an artist. ~ Emeli Sande

What I wanted to be and who I am is a singer and a songwriter. I wanted to be onstage, and I wanted the world to hear my music. The product of that is fame and the disgusting celebrity that goes along with it. But celebrity does not equal creativity. ~ Katy Perry

I love to rock 'n roll. But my finest suit, of all the things I do, is as a songwriter. ~ Dan Fogelberg

I probably wouldn't be a songwriter if I didn't grow up the way I did. It was difficult and it was at times very scary to grow up in a household so unsettled and at times very violent. But, it also, I guess it earned me a sort of wisdom at a young age that's served me well. ~ Ray Lamontagne

When Annunziata said she loved me or any of her thousands of other friends and beloveds, she was really saying, at least in my mind, "God loves you." To quote the singer/songwriter James Taylor, she showered the people she loved with love, always showing the way that she felt without holding back. Even as her body could barely contain her soul any longer, she'd open wide the gates of herself with a smile, that giggle, her twinkling eyes, and she'd let the supernatural love flow through her. Walking out of the chapel after her funeral, a woman I'd never seen before stopped me and said, "You're Cathleen, aren't you?" "Yes," I croaked, tears rolling off my nose as I fingered the prayer card with Annunziata's picture on it. Slipping an arm around my shoulders, the woman explained that she was one of Annunziata's former students and said, "She loved you so much." I know. ~ Cathleen Falsani

What Autotune allows is for people like myself and Kanye West not to depend on the singer. Back in the Fifties, the songwriter was rendered invisible. Now the songwriter is there in the forefront. ~ Will.i.am

If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with. ~ Michael Jackson

My favorite songwriting trick is writing something like 'XO.' In my brain, I thought, 'This is probably going to be a love song. How can I change that and find ways to twist that.' As a songwriter, it's your job for the song to take twists and turns that people don't expect. ~ Kelsea Ballerini

I've always been jealous of rappers, because they can fit so many words into a song and tell a story with lots of details. But when you're a songwriter, you have to fit the words to the melody and you can't fit as much in. I'm just a big fan of storytelling. ~ Skylar Grey