Quotes About Myself And Music

#1. I gave up that idea of trying to make music that I thought other people would want. I just made music for myself and music for people that I knew.

Daniel Powter

#2. I think in the first place hearing the music inside of you is very soothing, very comforting. For me there always been, if you like, a spiritual connection between myself and music.

Sinead O'Connor

#3. I'm very serious about what I write and who I allow to produce the music, because I want to make sure it's a true album, and not just something pushed out there to create hype and more fame for myself.

Alyson Stoner

#4. Being able to express myself through music and art has always been when I feel the most alive.

Avril Lavigne

#5. I was actually under a lot of heaviness when I was younger. I thought of myself as an old soul. I was very obsessed with death. Basically, I didn't really have a youth - I sublimated all that into my identity and my music.

Ariel Pink

#6. First, I think of myself as a brand, a businesswoman. Musician is something I just do because it's my passion - I love it and it's something I do for fun. I love music and I love to make people dance.

Paris Hilton

#7. In a sense, I'm always hearing music of some sort, whether it's people talking or surface noise or whatever, because there is no privacy. So when I'm by myself, I just kind of like to be and reflect, and I can't do that when I'm listening to music. Because it's someone else's reflections, not mine.

Sarah McLachlan

#8. I could have probably gone on and still played the part of the guitar player of Limp Bizkit, but musically I was kind of bored. If I was to continue, it would have been about the money and not about the true music, and I don't want to lie to myself, or to them or to fans of Limp Bizkit.

Wes Borland

#9. It was made clear to me that Music is related to everything, especially nature and language, but in order to speak it naturally, I had to first make myself a part of it.

Victor L. Wooten

#10. I know so few people who actually give music their undivided attention, so I've been trying to just park myself on the couch between the speakers and listen.

Cliff Martinez

#11. Music is like a mirror in front of you. You're exposing everything, but surely that's better than suppressing ... You have to dig deep and that can be hard for anybody, no matter what profession. I feel that I need to actually push myself to the limit to feel happy with the end result.

Enya

#12. My challenges have not been around music. My hardest thing in music was just sitting down and teaching myself how to play and believing in myself.

Valerie June

#13. Cooking, to me, it's kind of therapeutic. It's completely different from music as well. I'm not amazing at it, but I can cook myself a good meal. And I'm not just saying this, but anytime I'm on the bus or at home, I'm watching Food Network or cooking on TV just 'cause it's interesting to me.

Phillip Phillips

#14. Nowadays, there's a lot more that comes before music, that I need to take care of before I can sit down and play, and be a contributing member of a band or society. I have to take care of myself and my recovery, and then my family, and then my music.

Patty Schemel

#15. In my career I defined myself by my music, and the danger is that one defines oneself based on popularity. As you know, that goes up and down, and you can't judge how you feel about yourself based on what your sales is.

Kenny Loggins

#16. The Clash were innovative, radical and helped drive a change in music that was ground-breaking. In comparison to some of the music today they sounded like they meant it. I still listen to their music today to remind myself what music made with commitment sounds like.

Chrissie Hynde

#17. I try to put myself into unusual and difficult situations as often as I can in order to capture the element of struggle in the music.

Neil Finn

#18. Without music I wouldn't have the ability to be in business. The opportunity to be in business came with the finances from music and the notoriety that comes with being successful as an artist. So I see myself as an artist first, but I'm absolutely conscious of business.

Curtis Jackson

#19. Ironically, being a coach on 'The Voice' and spending time with those kids, Xenia and Dia especially, I learned a lot about myself. It reminded me how lucky I am that this happened for me, and it kind of lit the spark inside me again for my love of music.

Blake Shelton

#20. Hope is for people who wait. And I don't want to wait no more. I'm not scared anymore. I'm not scared of myself. Of my things. Of my fear. Of absolutely nothing. And that's music.

Concha Buika

#21. Music I can discover a part of myself that I haven't been able to for a long time, and acting is the opposite. I'm in love with both of them and I would never choose one over the other.

Tammin Sursok

#22. I do music because I can just pick up my guitar and sing, and completely satisfy, instant gratification. I don't need a script, I don't people, I don't need anything, cameras, I just have myself and my guitar, or keyboard.

Jeremy Renner

#23. It's nearly redundant to enumerate the reasons The Beatles are important. There are probably different reasons why The Beatles are important to a musician like myself and to the millions of Beatles fans who just enjoy listening to the music.

Todd Rundgren

#24. Finally, I was no longer a student and was making music for myself.

Kenny G

#25. Everyone has their own path in life, no matter if it's being a celebrity or a singer. Quite frankly, I didn't move to Nashville and tell myself I wanted to be a singer because I wanted to be a celebrity or I wanted to be somebody that people admired. I wasn't about that. I just loved music.

Jake Owen

#26. If I'm going to continue to be any kind of spiritual teacher, I've got to go deeper myself. And so for me, [I am] preserving long periods of solitude, silence, prayer, journaling, study, writing. I don't turn on music or the TV unless I really need to.

Richard Rohr

#27. When you're done shooting, the movie that you're going to release when you're done shooting is as bad as it will ever be. And then through editing, and finishing the effects and adding music, you get to make the movie better again. So I'm really hard on myself and on the movie.

Barry Sonnenfeld

#28. With the Rhythm Kings, I can involve myself in arranging and producing the music as well as the choice of songs.

Bill Wyman

#29. I have to laugh to myself. I don't find it work to write music, because I enjoy it. I'd find an evening of bridge hard work because you have to think like hell, and at the end, you get nothing for it.

Richard Rodgers

#30. Fortunately I've got a weak character, so I never did decide to dedicate myself to only one of my professions. And I'm very glad. After all, if I'd rejected chess or music then my life wouldn't have been two times, but a hundred times less interesting.

Mark Taimanov

#31. It's very much a piece of myself when I write a song. I don't mean to say it's very personal, like the lyrics mean something personal to me. When I write a song, that's my taste in music - my taste in chord progressions and melodies.

Zooey Deschanel

#32. I just had to find something else to fulfill me. Always being a singer and writing, it was a blessing. My brother started making music that was the kind of music I always saw myself singing.

Taryn Manning

#33. Well, I've been recording myself on a computer since I was about 13 or 14. So it's completely entwined with my creative process. Essentially, it allows you to make music that's better and smarter than you are, by using your ears to lead the way.

St. Vincent

#34. I still let myself be a fan of music and that motivates me to want to be better than certain people or just getting the same love. Nothing is new under the sun so you cant be afraid to take things from others and try to flip them and make them your own at the end of the day.

Kid Ink

#35. Besides singing "Jump Around" to all the WWE superstars in the locker room? Uh ... I enjoy listening to music, pumping up, and getting really muscular and oily. I like to oil myself before.

The Miz

#36. Dancing was a big part of my life, but I would never consider myself a dancer. I adore singing, and music has always been a huge part of my life, but I also enjoy acting.

Vanessa Hudgens

#37. I'm not trying to say I'm this artist who is all artsy and that I only write music for myself, because I don't. I write music for other people to enjoy, so I think about if it'd be an idea someone else would like.

Conrad Sewell

#38. As much as I am a huge soccer fan, music just kills it when it comes to importance. I could go to a desert island without a football and survive happily, but if I had to go without music, I think I'd end up killing myself. It fuels my soul. It always has.

Joe Elliott

#39. It's crazy to think of myself as a musician. It's ridiculous that I get to do it, and I don't necessarily mean music. Getting to do something you really enjoy as a job is an incredible privilege, I think. I still don't really feel like a musician outside of the actual music.

Ben Rector

#40. It's hard to view myself sometimes as even in the same league as other musicians, mainly because there's so much music before me. I feel overinformed by different styles and different possibilities.

Ryan Adams

#41. I love to act and put on a show, but you're playing a character all the time. For music, it's really just me being myself.

Tinashe

#42. You know, I love plays. I love the smell of a theater. The old rooms and the carpet and all that stuff. I love to tell stories. Even before I was doing music, I saw myself as a director.

R. Kelly

#43. Music taught me how to always be patient and focused, and to train the little concentration in myself.

Hiromi

#44. I do dance music, and I can be pretty camp myself from time to time.

Kylie Minogue

#45. I don't do anything specific for the stage. I'm just myself. I can't stand still for five seconds. I'm normally quite active, so that just comes out on stage. If I see people react to me and my music, I just have to give back and express myself.

Shreya Ghoshal

#46. I love people, and I love to be with people and to make music with people, but my natural state is to revert back to being by myself in my house, which is cool because that's where I practice and write and listen and study.

Esperanza Spalding

#47. When I started writing full time I had not long stopped being a teacher and when at last I had a full day to write, I would put music on and wonder to myself - am I allowed to do this? Then I thought: 'I am control of this and no one is telling me what I can do.'

Roddy Doyle

#48. I think of myself as a serious artist. Sometimes you can get in your head too much about that and forget that you have to have fun. I've been guilty in my career about that at times. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought I didn't want anybody else to have a hit with it!

Tim McGraw

#49. Half the time I feel like I'm appealing to the downer freaks out there. We start to play one downer record after another until I begin to get down myself. Give me something from 1960 or something; let me get up again. The music of today is for downer freaks, and I'm an upper.

Wolfman Jack

#50. I would love to be able to program myself to pick up any instrument and to be able to play it very, very well, and to be able to read music and dance as well. I'm very uncoordinated, and I'd love to be able to bust a really great move.

Dichen Lachman

#51. Every now and then when I feel the doubt, I look inside myself and I see the way. The whole world full of possibilities. So you could be you and I could be me.

Jonathan Anthony Burkett

#52. I guess, people like myself and Roxy Music that had a different agenda about taking up music.

David Bowie

#53. I don't look at myself as a celebrity. People recognize me, but it's all about my music, my songs. It's not like I'm a greater being. I take my kids to school, pick them up, go to the grocery store. I'm a mother, and my kids mean more to me than even being an artist.

Faith Evans

#54. I tried to reach the combatants with my music. I tried to turn my anger into something positive. Myself, and others like me, just tried to keep rock and roll alive.

Eric Burdon

#55. I follow a simple formula when I compose. I ask myself, 'What would the audience want to hear?' and 'Why would they buy my CDs?' And the process of answering these questions through music follows. Sometimes, it works. Sometimes, it backfires.

A.R. Rahman

#56. I recognise a lot of myself in these kids who enter shows like Pop Idol. It's very hard to get into the music industry and you have to take every opportunity that you can. Something like Pop Idol is a great opportunity but unfortunately, I think it's tainted by the people that make these shows.

Melanie Chisholm

#57. People have these incredible expectations. So instead of being inspired by, say, Joni Mitchell's music, I look at it and say to myself, 'I'm going to quit - why would I think of writing or performing after listening to that?'

Idina Menzel

#58. Once I got to be about twenty-five, I got interested in the music of the time. I started smokin' dope, I started drinking, I started slowing down and trying to find myself. I didn't want to work in nightclubs.

Gregory Hines

#59. I don't think of myself as a folk singer per se, but I really like blues and string-band music. When I started listening to records when I was a teenager, the folk boom was going on.

Loudon Wainwright III

#60. I was always an odd girl; I managed to alienate a lot of people. I felt like a square peg in a round hole in the music industry and created a lot of neurosis for myself.

Alison Moyet

#61. I'd refer to myself as a feminist. I don't think my music is overtly rooted in feminism. I'm a teenager, and 95 percent of my friends are boys, and that's just the way I've always been.

Lorde

#62. I hadn't known anything else, other than being an artist, and I needed to be a person for a while, really get to know myself without that whole thing [of selling music] surrounding me.

Tove Styrke

#63. I don't put categories on music, myself. So either people go with it or they don't, and sometimes the names sound a little silly.

Chaz Bundick

#64. It just feels like I'm on the right path musically and I'm in the right mindset to continue out my mission in music because I'm not putting myself in a box.

Brandy Norwood

#65. I no longer wanted to satisfy myself. I really want to connect with the world and make my music mean something to people.

Chick Corea

#66. So many schools are getting rid of music programs and it's really sad because I know that when I started singing and stuff it was something that I always wanted to do and I never believed in myself to be able to do it.

Hilary Duff

#67. I work on myself daily to be a better person. When I react in a negative way to somebody, I sit back and think about why I did it, so I'm always working on myself, and my music is the same.

Lizzo

#68. Standing off to the side, stage left, I backed up, parked myself on a crate, and squeezed my knees together. The louder the music got, the harder the crate vibrated. It was like having sex with Paul's spirit until his body could step in and finish the job.

Tiffanie DeBartolo

#69. For me personally, I just try to prove myself in my work. I'm just trying to get better at what I do, and hopefully that will impact women in music, and hopefully the girls in the crowd will see my up there as a bandleader and think, 'Wow, maybe I can do that one day.'

Jenny Lewis

#70. I can't compose or play music; I'm not that fortunate. But I can write and I can talk and sometimes when I'm doing either of these things I realize that I've written a sentence or uttered a thought that I didn't absolutely know I had in me ... until I saw it on the page or heard myself say it.

Christopher Hitchens

#71. Everyday something new pops into my mind: I could do this next or I could do that next. I want to grow more and more and show people different sides of myself, whether it's different kinds of music, different kinds of movies, or different kinds of television.

LeAnn Rimes

#72. I would like to involve myself in some black music. I would like to do some blues and some gospel music. I want to try stuff from other genres and try to widen my musical base.

Greg Lake

#73. 'I don't want to grow up', Tom Waits said it. I live it. I put myself in a position to be a kid as long as I want to. I play loud music and scream for a living.

Jason Newsted

#74. I toured for about 2 1/2 years on twentythree and then I took about a year off. I really just spent some good quality time by myself at my house, cooking, watching movies, hanging with my friends, and family. I just really needed a chance to get away from the music for a minute and decompress.

Tristan Prettyman

#75. I personally do not listen to a lot of music. It helps keep my mind free. I don't want to sound like someone else from the get-go. I want to express myself and the world in my head.

Victoria Legrand

#76. Acting had been a hobby that turned into a career, the directing was a hobby that turned into a career and music just really allowed me to find another way to express myself.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner

#77. My expectations for myself were never high. I had a very unusual way of writing songs and of thinking about music. I wasn't at all like Bob Dylan or Simon and Garfunkel. I was completely different - I didn't have a David Geffen at my side.

Don McLean

#78. I'm not crying about anything or anyone in particular. The life I live I created for myself, and I wouldn't want it any different. I cry because in the universe there is something as beautiful as Kremer playing the Brains violin concerto.

Peter Hoeg

#79. Obviously, I want it to be legally downloaded, and I myself have spent a fortune on iTunes because, for me, that's the easiest way to get music.

Joshua Bell

#80. I'm a serious student of music, a perfectionist in the studio, and I take the arrangement and production of it very seriously, down to the mixing and mastering even. But at the same time I'm having so much fun with it. I try not to take myself so seriously.

Mayer Hawthorne

#81. I've been trying to grow up some myself, in my heart, and it's happening quick and I feel good about it, and I want that to come out in the music.

Stevie Ray Vaughan

#82. ... .For instance, I hated Pearl Jam at the time. I thought they were pompous blowhards. Now, whenever a Pearl Jam song comes on the car radio, I find myself pounding my fist on the dashboard, screaming, Pearl JAM! Pearl JAM! Now this is rock and roll! Jeremy's SPO-ken! But he's still al-LIIIIIVE!

Rob Sheffield

#83. I often find myself listening to a record because a lot of people or magazines have told me it's good and I'm supposed to like it, and I try to stay in touch with what's happening and I'm also a fan of music. I find myself trying to like something that I really don't think is that great.

Trent Reznor

#84. When I dream about music, or think about music, by myself, I try to be as free as possible and allow my creative mind full reign.

John Dieterich

#85. I don't write songs, play music and tour, really, for anyone else but myself. It's something that I have to do to stay alive.

Jenny Lewis

#86. In my mid 30's, after a decade or so of giving full time to the music thing and finding myself with about $10 in the bank and no assets other than my musical equipment, I realized I needed to get serious about making a living.

Mark Edwards

#87. When I write songs I write for myself ... I'm writing it as a form of expression, and hoping to find an audience, an audience that responds to music that is honest and lyrical and tells stories.

Patti Scialfa

#88. Just going through a lot in my life, becoming more confident in myself, writing my own music and just really getting in the studio and just doing it.

Paris Hilton

#89. The one place where I'm allowed to rebel, and the one place where I'm allowed to not worry about censoring myself is my music.

Taylor Swift

#90. It is with great disappointment and regret that after having the privilege of writing and performing the music of The Black Crowes over the last 24 years, I find myself in the position of saying that the band has broken up.

Rich Robinson

#91. Sometimes I start with music on and then I get distracted because I'm working to a different rhythm; I'm not working to myself. So, I don't have music on when I'm working.

Sue Tompkins

#92. I'm definitely inspired by music; I feel like I can express a part of myself, a part of my heart and my soul, that I can't express just acting by writing music or singing music. It takes the emotions to another level. I feel really connected to something else, you know.

Laura Bell Bundy

#93. I was going to be a musician, no matter what it took. I supported myself with blue-collared jobs so I could write music and be in a band and play shows. I even got into an underground art scene. I was going to do whatever.

Chris Cornell

#94. Meditation is the one thing I do every day - meditate, pray. I do reading in the morning and try to center myself. I play music every day because that is very centering.

Mason Jennings

#95. I love singing. It's who I am. When I act, I take a small part of myself and just magnify it, but when I'm singing, that's who I am. I don't write music, so I choose songs that I would have written.

Lainie Kazan

#96. I turn my back on him as he goes,
and settle myself in the parlor,
and touch Ma's piano.
My fingers leave sighs
in the dust.

Karen Hesse

#97. I don't take breaks, man. In the past, I used to spend my free time getting in trouble, and now I spend it working on my music. If I'm not playing drums with my cover band, Chevy Metal, I'm working on songs for myself.

Taylor Hawkins

#98. When I am at peace with myself ... then thoughts flow into me most easily and at their best. Where they come from and how - that I cannot say ... I'd be willing to work forever and forever if I were permitted to write only such music as I want to write and can write - which I myself think good.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

#99. Obviously, the music and lyrics are in me, but if I let myself get in my own way, I do. I empty out and let it come, and then the music spirits take over.

Joan Jett

#100. If feels good to live after death. It feels good to not be dead. It feels so good to find myself alive and flying home. The music plays in my ears and I float further and further away from war. Fucking Baghdad.

Michael Hastings