Writing Music Quotes

My inspiration for writing music is like Don McLean did when he did "American Pie" or "Vincent". Lorraine Hansberry with "A Raisin in the Sun". Like Shakespeare when he does his thing, like deep stories, raw human needs.

I'm trying to think of a good analogy. It's like, you've got the Vietnam War, and because you had reporters showing us pictures of the war at home, that's what made the war end, or that shit would have lasted longer. If no one knew what was going on we would have thought they were just dying valiantly in some beautiful way. But because we saw the horror, that's what made us stop the war.

So I thought, that's what I'm going to do as an artist, as a rapper. I'm gonna show the most graphic details of what I see in my community and hopefully they'll stop it quick.

I've seen all of that-- the crack babies, what we had to go through, losing everything, being poor, and getting beat down. All of that. Being the person I am, I said no no no no. I'm changing this. ~ Tupac Shakur

I am always thinking about writing music; my wife is constantly asking me: 'Is there any way you can turn off the music part of your brain for a minute?' but I really can't! It's my form of therapy. ~ Kellin Quinn

Life batters and shapes us in all sorts of ways before it's done, but those original selves which we were born with, and which I believe we continue in some measure to be no matter what, are selves which still echo with the holiness of their origin. I believe that what Genesis suggests is that this original self, with the print of God's thumb still upon it, is the most essential part of who we are and is buried deep in all of us as a source of wisdom and strength and healing which we can draw upon or, with our terrible freedom, not draw upon as we choose. I think that among other things all real art comes from that deepest self – painting, writing music, dance, all of it that in some way nourishes the spirit and enriches the understanding. I think that our truest prayers come from there too, the often unspoken, unbidden prayers that can rise out of the lives of unbelievers as well as believers whether they recognize them as prayers or not. And I think that from there also come our best dreams and our times of gladdest playing and taking it easy and all those moments when we find ourselves being better or stronger or braver or wiser than we are. ~ Frederick Buechner

I'm always thinking about young people first when I'm writing music. Whenever I can reach that young person and inspire them to go after their own dreams, start their own movement just like I did with Wondaland. Starting their own tribe and showing people that we are not all the same, we're not all monolithic. I think that's what it's all about for me. ~ Janelle Monae

I am always writing music. I have got unlimited ideas because I have been clean and sober for my entire life. ~ Ted Nugent

I was in lots of dodgy bands growing up and I always fancied myself in a band. But, you know, I was rubbish at writing music. So maybe one day I'll play a rock star, or punk rocker. ~ Gemma Arterton

One thing I've tried to do in writing music is take on very basic things, very archetypal things. ~ Harrison Birtwistle

I'm learning more about life when I'm playing too, and writing music. I'm learning more about life, the connection. ~ Wayne Shorter

I started out doing music videos and photography, and I always loved writing. ~ Brendan Fletcher

Writing music always happened for me in periods when I wasn't under the influence of mind-altering substance. ~ Anthony Kiedis

Reading and writing music is a wonderful way of getting ideas in your head down to someone else who reads and writes, but if you don't read and write, and the other musician you're playing with are trying to express something who doesn't read and write, than it's a question of "I wrote" so that you must learn from listening and from understanding where that's coming from. ~ Ronnie Montrose

I would rather write songs and then practice with the band. Just the band camaraderie is awesome and then writing music and then just listening to it and saying 'Dude, we made that music!' That's really fun. ~ Sam McCandless

Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself. ~ Truman Capote

There's something about these moments when we're writing music that I absolutely love. All my worries and thoughts about everything wrong in my life seem to go away for the short times we write together. It's nice. ~ Anonymous

I used to split my time between writing, music and painting. I would work on a book and then abandon it, start a band, do an album, quit music, then do a gallery show. Eventually I decided to give writing a serious shot. ~ Isaac Marion

Not being able to read and write music is not the same as being illiterate in speech and writing. ~ Yanni

Most of the time when I'm in Australia I'm not really working, it seems. I'm just at home, getting on with renovating my house or writing music or whatever. So I get back to doing all the stuff that I naturally do. Whereas if I'm away working, that's all there is to do, is to concentrate on the work. ~ Guy Pearce

I've had the idea since high school, of writing music just for voices, just a choir. I don't know if I'll ever get around to doing it, but I'd definitely be excited about trying to pull that off at some point. It definitely seems like an older-me kind of project. ~ Panda Bear

I can't listen to music when I'm writing. I like music best in a car or on the train. ~ Nell Freudenberger

I never stopped writing music, I just stopped writing songs. I've been writing music continually ever since the last album of original tunes, "River Of Dreams" in '93. ~ Billy Joel

I don't think I could ever give up music. It's what makes me tick. If there was no music, there would be no writing. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

Music's always part of my writing. I think all art is interconnected. You can't create or experience one without its influences bleeding into another. In my writing, music's mostly something that feeds my inspiration and mood while I'm writing, but it's also taught me how to score scenes and even novels. The rise and fall of the storyline echoes the flow of a good piece of music. ~ Charles De Lint

Music teaches us about lyricism in writing, a delicate turn of phrase, selectiveness with words, rhythmic passages. Most of all, music, like good writing, touches our emotions with cadences that slip in like a subtle visitor, familiar and known before. ~ Suzy Davies

I listen to music constantly while writing. ~ Orson Scott Card

I wanted to be a composer for a while, and for a while, and maybe still, I found writing music much easier than writing poetry. So maybe my brain clings to it. ~ Shane McCrae

I'm always writing music. I sort of do it obsessively, for good or for bad. It's good that it keeps me going, but it's bad because it really is sort of like an obsession where you can't stop sometimes and it'll keep you up at night and ruin your weekend. ~ Hamilton Leithauser

Writing music is sort of my hobby, but it's been falling off more and more. Doing comic books takes up my entire life. ~ Bryan Lee O'Malley

I'm quite private. And I never wanted to be the biggest star in the world, really. So in that sense I've got a good balance of doing great shows, of making an appearance every now and then and writing music, and I don't really have to do much else. ~ Ellie Goulding

I have about four different endeavors I'm going after right now. They all excite me in different ways. I'm all about keeping as many irons in the fire as possible. I'm writing music, trying to write a book (aren't we all?), putting a festival together, speaking ... It keeps life interesting. ~ Kevin Griffin

As an independent artist it is so easy to get caught up in websites, social media, merchandise, when I am going to put out an EP, fining a producer, finding a studio to record in and you have to remember at the end of the day you should be writing music. ~ Tyler Hilton

Writing more and more to the sound of music, writing more and more like music. Sitting in my studio tonight, playing record after record, writing, music a stimulant of the highest order, far more potent than wine. ~ Anais Nin

For all forms, writing dialogue is almost like writing music. I pay close attention to rhythms and tones. ~ Sefi Atta

I do play the guitar, but I do it for fun. And I am terrible at writing music as well. I have tried and failed, horribly. ~ Jamie Blackley

I'd like to become better at writing music by continuing to study it. ~ Seungri

Writing music on your own makes you think a lot about your life. Who are you? Would you change anything about yourself? This is where it comes from. ~ Enya

For the first four years, no new enterprise produces profits. Even Mozart didn't start writing music until he was four. ~ Peter Drucker

It's this funny thing now: You sign up to be a musician because you want to write music, but you don't spend your time writing music. Instead, you go around the world selling the music you've already made. ~ Zachary Cole Smith

I'm really interested in writing a piece of music that will move you, that will really move you. That is really the only reason that I'm writing music. ~ Leo Ornstein

When I started writing music on the guitar, it started off very folky because of my limited ability to play. It was slow, soft melodies. But then, as I got better on the guitar, I started exploring different sounds. ~ Kiesza

I hope people hear my songs and realize that writing music is kind of easy, or that taking your sadness and turning it into a beautiful song is worthwhile. ~ Frankie Cosmos

I got into writing music when I was, like, 14 or 15. It was a very private thing for me because I used it as an outlet and emotional release. I kept it very close to myself and didn't tell too many people about it. ~ Banks

I really look forward to putting on a record. I love writing music and think that may be my strong suit even more than singing. I can't wait to take that music on tour and share it with as many people as I can. ~ James Wolpert

When I was young, I wanted to be a writer or painter. I was always writing stories, and I excelled at drawing. My teachers encouraged my art work. When I was 9 or 10, I began learning piano and started writing music. ~ Bat For Lashes

Playing to bigger audiences at festivals got me in the mindset of writing music that I would sing to a crowd. ~ Caroline Polachek

Writing music is my one and only passion and joy. ~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

I'm writing for the sake of writing music. Whether it gets heard or not isn't an issue for me. It keeps my own juices going and my mind active. ~ Billy Joel

Writing music and lyrics that mean something personal to me. It's an exciting, intense, cathartic, this-is-who-I-am experience. ~ Mark Hoppus

The thing we often forget to talk about, or perhaps we take for granted, is our country's dazzling beauty. Our natural environment is so much a part of Australia's art, writing, music and culture, both indigenous and non indigenous. ~ Quentin Bryce

I was always writing music anyway. I just sort of fell into it. Writing for me is a therapeutic process. ~ Lisa Marie Presley

Every writer writes in different ways, and so some write the music first, while others write the lyrics first, and some write while they are doing other things, and it is just nice to see how other writers are writing. ~ Valerie June

Writing music and lyrics, you tend to become a control freak - sitting alone in your room with a bare light bulb over your head, writing communist manifestos. ~ Jason Robert Brown

It's the coolest part about writing music. I don't know how other people work, but so much is derived from some amalgamation of all these different songs that I love. That's why they jump all over the place. ~ Nate Ruess

Portland in particular is a cheap enough place to live that you can still develop your passion - painting, writing, music. People seem less status-conscious. Even wealthy people buy second-hand clothes and look a little bit homeless. ~ Chuck Palahniuk

But I never listen to music while I'm writing. ~ Stephen Greenblatt

But you've got to have style in whatever you do -- writing, music, painting, fashion, boxing, anything. ~ Miles Davis

Most people define themselves by what they do - 'I'm a musician.' Then one day it occurred to me that I'm only a musician when I'm playing music - or writing music, or talking about music. I don't do that 24 hours a day. I'm also a father, a son, a husband, a citizen - I mean, when I go to vote, I'm not thinking of myself as 'a musician.' ~ Herbie Hancock

I didn't know that there were many rules in music when I first started writing. ~ Tyler Joseph

The poetry of music composes each generation of Americans' autobiographical memories. Language and music represent two rotaries of the revolving and evolving wheels that we employ to internalize the axis of identification. Music plays a profound role in the definitive stages of most people's lives. Reminiscent of the sounds and smells that flavored our youth, musical intonations organize our personal memories into temporal time sequence. Modulation of musical memories comprises an important quotient in people's autographical memory system. If we listen to enough music, its pitch, tone, timbre, and cadence eventually seeps into our unconsciousness. The lilt of music becomes a portal through which we perceive, feel, and experience worldly inflections and how we synthesize swirling emotions. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

I tend to avoid writing music about initial reactions to situations, like frustration or anger. I'd rather wait till I go through the problem, and write about the learning that took place. ~ Yanni

Taylor Swift dates guys so she can write a breakup song about them. I don't think she's dating for love - I think she's dating for creativity. So let's get her off the market and put her in dating detox. If she really wants love, she has to stop writing music about them. ~ Patti Stanger

I've been writing music since I was a teenager. I play keyboards. I'm not much of a player, but I can write. That will come along. I'd like to do a musical. ~ Paul Eenhoorn

I can be completely indulgent and spend as many hours and days or weeks as I like on one thing. Writing music and sitting in my studio, just pottering with ideas, it's a lot more personal and creative for me, I don't feel restricted. ~ Guy Pearce

I'll always write music. Whether I release a record, whether I let the public hear it or not, I'm always writing music. ~ Brian McKnight

I have a hard time writing music when I'm on tour. ~ Avicii

My playing music is strictly for fun. When I was in a band, I was really excited to talk about it since I had never really played music to that extent. It was never meant as something I would consider as anything more than having fun with my friends. But I think I would enjoy writing music for the movies that I'm working on. ~ Anton Yelchin

Writing, music, sculpting, painting, and prayer! These are the three things that are most closely related! Writers, musicians, sculptors, painters, and the faithful are the ones who make things out of nothing. Everybody else, they make things out of something, they have materials! But a written work can be done with nothing, it can begin in the soul! A musical piece begins with a harmony in the soul, a sculpture begins with a formless, useless piece of rock chiseled and formed and molded into the thing that was first conceived in the sculptor's heart! A painting can be carried inside the mind for a lifetime, before ever being put onto paper or canvass! And a prayer! A prayer is a thought, a remembrance, a whisper, a communion, that is from the soul going to what cannot be seen, yet it can move mountains! And so I believe that these five things are interrelated, these five kinds of people are kin. ~ C. JoyBell C.

I'm trying to get every man involved in art, into experimental music, or painting, or novel-writing. ~ Harvey Pekar

I've been really enjoying writing articles and writing music and music for movies. ~ Alanis Morissette

As a youngster, I never dreamed there could be a career actually earning a living writing music. ~ John Williams

I finally realized that my relaxation is practicing the piano and writing. I've tried to do other things, but I've learned through the decades, that this is what I enjoy, practicing music and writing. ~ Andrew Hill

I've been writing music since 4th grade, and I love putting words together and expressing things in a way that you can move your head to and you can really relate to, because I have a lot to say. ~ Adam Hicks

the point of writing music and experiencing music isn't to make people comfortable necessarily ~ Philip Glass

Writing music obviously comes from being inspired by things, and big changes in your life, and relationships and growing older and being more independent. ~ Tristan Prettyman

I love composing and writing music and dancing and performing and conceptualizing creatively for visual mediums. I love to create. ~ Michael Jackson

I do listen to a lot of music, but I don't listen when I'm writing. ~ Yanni

Once I discovered how important writing music was to me and just what a huge weight it lifted off of me, I knew that it was going to be the biggest part of my life, the biggest love of my life, the biggest thing in my life. ~ Banks

Music is the doorway that has led me to drawing, photography, and writing. ~ Layne Staley

Ultimately, I'm a fan of music. I describe writing music sometimes as hieroglyphics, like, you know, excavating, gently brushing off these artifacts and discovering the song underneath it all. It seems as if it is already written in it. ~ CeeLo Green

I've been writing music since I was about eight. I would write sporadically. I wrote a lot of music in high school. I guess the oldest song on the record ("I Thought I Saw Your Face") is about eight years old. It's the old "I had my whole life to write my first album and six months to write the second one." I did, to some degree, but actually, a lot of the songs that ended up on the record, I wrote really recently. So it varies. ~ Zooey Deschanel

For me, writing music is a way of processing the world. It's not a concrete thing, as in, "This piece is about giraffes." It's much more of an emotional sort of thing. I want people to find something out about themselves through my music, something that was inaccessible before, something that they were suppressing, something that they couldn't really confront. ~ Missy Mazzoli

Because sometimes I was tired of feeling so much and I just wanted to shut down and not feel anything. But I guess I wasn't wired that way. All I could do was write about it. Get it out of my head and onto something like paper that I could manage easier. ~ Jon Skovron

I didn't really start writing music or lyrics or turning them into songs until I went to San Francisco. ~ Jello Biafra

Writing music is really personal, and it's a really exciting thing to participate in because represents the full creative process: It feels like something is coming from nothing. ~ Zooey Deschanel

You're letting such a fragile side of yourself out when you're creating or writing music. To do that with people who are almost strangers would seem very strange to me. I think that we're very lucky that we're quite close. To us, it's almost like the band is the grandest possible adventure you can go on with your friends. It's really really exciting. ~ Alex Kapranos

Writing music is not so much inspiration as hard work. ~ George Gershwin

I started playing the piano, pretty much on my own, when I was 5, and I started writing music when I was 7. In fact, I won a composition award. It was a crummy little piece, but I won with it. ~ Maury Yeston

I took lessons since I was little; I used to pay for my own singing lessons and take myself. Just take the bus when I was a kid and go. But I'd been writing music for years, since the smallest age. ~ Rebecca Ferguson

In writing music, the structure of each piece is a very important factor. ~ Leo Ornstein

I believe that what Genesis suggests is that this original self, with the print of God's thumb still upon it, is the most essential part of who we are and is buried deep in all of us as a source of wisdom and strength and healing which we can draw upon or, with our terrible freedom, not draw upon as we choose. I think that among other things all real art comes from that deepest self - painting, writing music, dance, all of it that in some way nourishes the spirit. ~ Frederick Buechner

I started playing piano when I was 6. And I knew that wanted to be involved in that form of expression, whether it was through music, or acting, or dancing, or painting, or writing. ~ Alanis Morissette

I'm composing and writing music. ~ Anthony Hopkins

Plus, we spend most of our time writing music. Most of the time is spent in the studio in my house. ~ Warren Cuccurullo

Writing music uses a whole different process that involves a lot of noodling and just seeing what comes. ~ Charles De Lint

I first started writing music when I was 15 and at 16, I was playing in different cities in Australia. When I was 18, I was voted number one DJ in Australia. ~ TyDi

I'd always loved poetry and I'd always loved writing music and composing music, but I hadn't thought of putting the two together until around that time. ~ Bruce Cockburn

It was a natural thing for me to go become a musician, and then to start writing music. I don't even really remember making a decision to go into music, it was just there for me, always. If I weren't making a living at it, I'd still be writing music. ~ Geoff Zanelli

Being on 'Nashville' and working with some incredible people like T-Bone Burnett and Buddy Miller - so many wonderful, incredible musicians that I've been blessed to play with and observe - that has continued to shape the process of arranging music, writing music. ~ Jonathan Jackson

I just want to keep writing music. ~ Lady Gaga

Playing shows is really fun. And writing music is really fun. But going on tour for a year is one of the more soul-crushing experiences you can have as a creative person. ~ Tunde Adebimpe

Opera tells stories through the pure emotion of music. An exhibition has to tell a story purely visually. I've tried to incorporate both of those things - pure emotion and being more visual - into my writing. ~ Lisa See