Songs As Quotes

#1. I was essentially trained by Oscar Hammerstein to think of songs as one-act plays, to move a song from point A to point B dramatically.

Stephen Sondheim

#2. I just always wrote songs as a side hobby. So it was sort of a natural thing to write comedy songs. But when I started writing songs, I wrote very serious songs. Or things that a 13-14 year-old would think are very serious issues.

Kyle Dunnigan

#3. For years, I've written narrators who aren't gender-identified. When I do autobiographical stuff, that's different, obviously. But I've always tried to keep my songs as potentially not a man's thing.

John Darnielle

#4. I would describe my songs as just a collection of my thoughts, with melodies that probably occurred to me in the grocery store or cycling home, sung as best I can over a bunch of chords.

Withered Hand

#5. I was writing songs as a kid about leprechauns and Catwoman and teapots - whatever it is that little girls wanna sing about. The first song I wrote was called "Kitten." It was about a boy named Liam, who I was just crazy about.

Bonnie McKee

#6. In the open air you don't play as many quiet songs as you would normally.

Ira Kaplan

#7. I mostly play old period songs, as they suit a ukulele more. I bought it when I saw the tribute concert to George Harrison. Joe Brown came on and sang 'I'll See You In My Dreams,' and there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Charles Dance

#8. Music is an emotion and it makes you feel a certain way. Some songs make you want to dance, while some make you think. Some songs are positive, while some people see those songs as negative.

Lil' Flip

#9. A guitar for me is pretty much strictly in the context of writing songs for my band, coming up with ideas with my band, and then being able to perform those songs as best as I can on stage - that's what the guitar for me has always been.

Scott Ian

#10. I don't really set out to please anybody, and I don't think I ever have. I have occasionally been encouraged to try to write something specifically for the purpose of releasing it as a single to get radio play. Those are not my best songs, as a rule.

Ian Anderson

#11. I've heard people using your songs as prayer, begging god in falsetto.

Warsan Shire

#12. I try to think of the songs as little movies. They're always pretty visual to me. I can always sort of see them. I don't always know what the end result is going to be, and I don't know exactly what it's going to sound like, but I can kinda see them.

Neko Case

#13. I don't see the songs as uplifting, but rather as trying to make lemonade from lemons, or whatever. When I listen to them, I understand the context. I don't like to pepper songs with my own experiences, though.

Patrick Stump

#14. And it really is a good feeling to get up there and make that sound. I'm not stuck in a time warp, because I can use as many of the old songs as I want to, just the favorites.

Dan Hicks

#15. I seldom speak on songs, as in when people ask me for fave songs. I really have only fave parts.

Gylve Nagell

#16. I feel that people spend as much time skipping songs as they do listening to them in their library.

Jacob Bannon

#17. I never see songs as permanent. I'm always in a state of revising everything.

Ariel Pink

#18. I've learned that my people are not the only ones oppressed ... I have sung my songs all over the world and everywhere found that some common bond makes the people of all lands take to Negro songs as their own.

Paul Robeson

#19. Get up, groan, write a bit, moan, eat breakfast, write some more, cycle my bike through the Sligo hills, make up country songs as I pedal along, sing them, have lunch, have a nap, groan, moan, write a small bit more, cook dinner, feed wifey, open a bottle, or several, slump, sleep.

Kevin Barry

#20. There are so many reasons to mark the passing of the great Joe Cocker - as many songs as he wrote, recorded and performed in his remarkable concerts. For me, Cocker was also the only performer who successfully covered and even improved on The Beatles.

Andrew Rosenthal

#21. There's more well-known artists who aren't making as good songs as people who are just coming out of nowhere. That seems to be more typical in the last few years than ever.

Beck

#22. People take worship (bhakti) into the relative plane. They consider singing religious songs as worship. Worship [bhakti] can never be without knowledge (gnan). Worship will make one become the one who he worships.

Dada Bhagwan

#23. I did not write love songs as a sixteen-year-old. I did not write about crushes or about mean girls. I wrote about my life - about the injustices and inequities and the search for answers and self-responsibility.

Jewel

#24. A lot of my fans are young and hip and enjoy my pop album and know the lyrics to those songs as well, which is a real compliment to me.

Idina Menzel

#25. I get really affected by songs as a music listener - they mean so much and they feel so significant.

Dee Dee Ramone

#26. Abba songs, as anyone who knows knows, are constructed, technically and harmonically, so as to physically imprint the human brain as if biting it with acid, to ensure we will never, ever, ever, be able to forget them.

Ali Smith

#27. I hate when songwriters refer to their songs as babies.

Jens Lekman

#28. When I started The Shins, it really was just me, alone, but it was still The Shins. I was totally recording stuff and writing songs as The Shins and all of that. So the beginning inception of the whole thing was some sort of a lie, I guess.

James Mercer

#29. You find your preferred resolutions and harmonic intervals and what-have-yous, and then you either keep writing the same thing until everybody is as bored with your songs as you are, or you try with all your might to get out of those patterns. This is what a lot of the work is all about.

Bent Saether

#30. I always try to give my songs as gifts.

Dan Fogelberg

#31. I have those songs as well. It depends on what I'm going through in my life but I'm a huge fan of Bjork. Sometimes I get so emotional because she's so amazing.

Ashlee Simpson

#32. I could write songs as bad as Wham's if I really felt the urge to, but what's the point?

Robert Smith

#33. I write most of my own lyrics for my album and I am helping to produce some of the songs as well.

Lindsay Lohan

#34. The whole time you're bouncing ideas off each other, you continue to try and push the songs as far as you can take them and make them the best that they can be.

Benji Madden

#35. It's very difficult for me to appreciate my own songs as I criticise them a lot.

Shreya Ghoshal

#36. I had equal opportunity to touch God sitting in my room, singing Him songs, as I did on a stage in front of twenty thousand people.

Anna Blanc

#37. I think of my songs as there to be something to move people emotionally.

David Friedman

#38. I was captured by the songs as much as the singer. They grabbed my heart. The reality of Country Music moved me. Even when I was a kid, I liked the sad songs ... songs that talked about true life. I recognized this music as a simple plea. It beckoned me.

Harlan Howard

#39. I work very hard on getting the songs as direct and examined as I can before I go in the studio.

Nick Lowe

#40. My first gig, I was about 17 or 18. But I'd been singing a long time. I got a guitar when I was 8, and started trying to write songs as a teenager.

Toby Keith

#41. I don't think of my songs as sad songs. I think of them as vulnerable and honest. I crack jokes in between songs, so people don't leave feeling too dark.

Mary Lambert

#42. I believe in monstrosities, and 'I Am Abraham' is a monstrosity of sorts, raveling out moment by moment with its contrapuntal songs, as if a band of musicians were at play, all of them with Lincoln's beard and disturbing grey eyes.

Jerome Charyn

#43. There are as many ways to write songs as there are songs.

Gregg Allman

#44. I wouldn't be able to do the songs as long as I've been doing if I didn't feel the pulse of the world. But I can feel people and I know what they want. I feel like I know how they are, because I am the people. And I just have a gift.

R. Kelly

#45. I've got a song on every album, two songs as a matter of fact on every album without Auto-Tune, and that's the song that nobody talks about. It's weird.

T-Pain

#46. I am very impressed by The Carrivick Sisters, one of the best young duos I've heard. The girls sing and play as one and their work is characterised by great musicality. They are not only very talented instrumentalists and singers but they write really good songs as well.

Ralph McTell

#47. I don't write as many songs as I used to. But, I find myself writing for social media more - times have changed. And I love photography, so a lot of my creative energy gets caught up that way.

Arlo Guthrie

#48. I'm an old-school, embarrassing Joni Mitchell fan. Her music made a hook in my soul and hasn't let go for all these years. I even sing her songs as lullabies to my kids.

Edie Falco

#49. I think the more emotional you are, the better. I'm sort of writing [songs] as I go and I can never tell how it's going to be or how it's going to feel until I get into the studio. But I definitely think it will. I probably can't help but have the emotions in my voice.

Miranda Lambert

#50. We'll set up a demo session and try to knock out eight or ten songs and make them sound as close as we can to a record with the money and time we have.

Shane McAnally

#51. There are very few songs about just liking someone as a friend.

Demetri Martin

#52. In ancient Jewish tradition, as far back as we can tell, the Song of Songs was not interpreted as a love poem or as an allegory of the individual soul; it was interpreted as an allegory of God's spousal love for the people of Israel.

Brant Pitre

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

W. Somerset Maugham

#54. What I'm doing is basically the same as Bob Dylan did with folk songs and Woody Guthrie songs, the same as folk music's always done. I'm not going to sing about ploughing, but I'll write a song that sounds like it should be about ploughing.

Justin Townes Earle

#55. When I lived in a little flat in Pimlico in 1981, I'd write in the hallway. As you walked in, there was a tiny little recess type thing, hardly a hallway, really, and I'd sit there writing songs with my guitar.

Paul Weller

#56. My favorite hobby is writing and recording songs at my studio. I like to surf, but I don't get a chance to do that as much as I'd like. I don't live close to the beach. I also like to ski, but I don't get to do that much, either.

Scott Weiland

#57. I can speak for most songwriters - those breakup love songs are so easy to write, as far as the inspiration and all that.

Lucinda Williams

#58. Sometimes when you have a song, you listen to it and say, 'It's OK. It's music to drive to.' But then there are songs where you can actually hear it as a movie.

Betty Wright

#59. I never thought of myself as a rock singer. I was interested in songs like 'Heart Like a Wheel,' and I liked the others for about 15 minutes.

Linda Ronstadt

#60. Growing up as a singer, and a cast member, and now as an adult, a songwriter, I get the luxury of choosing the kinds of songs that I want to sing, because I'll write, you know, hundreds of songs. Even though only 12 appear on the album. That's 12 that I've chosen to sing of my catalog.

Jason Mraz

#61. As time went on, we formed a number of different bands. We played in rival, neighborhood bands. We learned more songs and we learned how to play Chuck Berry music and we learned Ventures songs.

Wayne Kramer

#62. My audience is a huge part of my success, so I see us as a team. They send me tons of song requests every day. Some of the songs I've never heard before, but I listen to them and then pick the ones that I love.

Lindsey Stirling

#63. I wish myself to be a prop, if anything, for my songs. I want to be the vehicle for my songs. I would like to colour the material with as much visual expression as is necessary for that song.

David Bowie

#64. When I was writing 'Shotgun,' it's one of the first songs that's come to me as an image.

Valerie June

#65. The Ruts were a great punk rock band from England whose songs were as excellent as their time together was short.

Henry Rollins

#66. Before we started writing we did feel pressure because of the success of the first record. One of the first songs that we wrote was "Out Of My Heart" which is the first single. As soon as we wrote that, we knew we just set the standard and every other song had to be as good if not better.

Christian Burns

#67. I've written a lot of wordy, erudite, pretentious songs, but believe it or not, I'm usually doing my damnedest to resist the temptation to be overly "clever," and trying to keep things as accessible - and singable - as possible.

Peter Blegvad

#68. It was like those songs I'd heard as a child, each so familiar, and all mine. When i got older and realized the words were sad, the stories tragic, it didn't make me love them any less. By then they were already part of me, woven into my conciousness & memory

Sarah Dessen

#69. Knowing the songs - and I'm still learning - lets one envision birds you can hear but can't see. And as always, the ability to envision what is just out of sight is more important than merely seeing what's right in front of you.

Carl Safina

#70. Ever since I released my first album, I've tried not to use minor chords as the main element in songs. The way I sing is too melancholic.

Jose Gonzalez

#71. The smaller you strip things down, the more you depend on the songs and yourself, as opposed to arrangements.

Alicia Keys

#72. As a producer you can be more objective about the songs because you didn't write them.

Eric Bachmann

#73. I'd want it to be really special to both of us, but I'm a huge fan of 'At Last' as a wedding song. But what's also really cool is songs that no one else would have at their wedding, like an obscure Radiohead song.

Mary Lambert

#74. What's so powerful about the Psalms are, as well as they're being gospel and songs of praise, they are also the blues.

Bono

#75. As for hot songs ... there are five in Dhoom 3, and I hope they are all hot!

Katrina Kaif

#76. I work on words, mostly, toward them being poetry or short stories, and then some of those become songs. They all find their place in the world, but they all start off in the same place. I'm always painting and drawing as well, and it's an ongoing creative assignment.

P.J. Harvey

#77. He's written some great songs. I thought that 'Blues Man' was a perfect song for me to do as a tribute.

Alan Jackson

#78. As long as you have those brilliant songs, it didn't matter how bad you played, or how bad he sang on 'em sometimes. It was one of those magical things that really worked, and I don't think could ever happen again.

Donnie Fritts

#79. As a young concert-going person, I was never enamoured with celebrities who would walk out to feature in certain songs and then walk off.

John Lydon

#80. I liked music that I didn't have to think about, and most country songs spelled it right out for the listener. The girl was mad because the guy cheated, the guy was mad his pickup got trashed, everyone was sad the dog died, and Taylor Swift had about as much luck with men as I did.

Jay Crownover

#81. We always feel pretty creative as far as writing songs. We write them together; we just get in a room, or on occasion in Flea's garage. We just sort of improvise, like jazz musicians.

Chad Smith

#82. I didn't think I had a voice at all, and I still think of myself as an interpreter of songs more than a singer. I thought it was too deep; people thought I was a man. I had a very strong Jamaican accent, too; the accent really messed me up for auditions.

Grace Jones

#83. I don't know any Beatles songs. My dad never listened to Elvis or Sting or Bowie. Any band name that's on a t-shirt, I probably won't know their music, like AC/DC or whatever. I don't know what that is. As a kid, I would sing along to artists like Tania Maria.

FKA Twigs

#84. That's how it is with relationships, it's a part of life, and all the great love songs and poems and films have been written by people who were standing where I was that morning as Simon shut the door. Doesn't make it any easier though.

Jane Green

#85. When I am seriously composing, sometimes a phrase will come into my head, a catch phrase. When I was writing pop songs for a few years, as a career, separate from my folksinging career, I used to write songs for pop singers.

Tom Glazer

#86. I've always kind of been a little skeptical about bands that won't play their hits. That's really arrogant to me as a music fan. I do want to hear obscure songs, but like most people, I want to hear the hits, so we always play them.

Art Alexakis

#87. Yoga has had a profound effect on my songs and performances. I don't meditate in the traditional style of sitting and doing nothing. I prefer the zen of paying attention, such as the meditation of yoga flow, or walking meditations. I also consider singing, surfing and gardening to very meditative.

Jason Mraz

#88. As an adolescent, I was painfully shy, withdrawn. I didn't really have the nerve to sing my songs on stage, and nobody else was doing them. I decided to do them in disguise so that I didn't have to actually go through the humiliation of going on stage and being myself.

David Bowie

#89. I'd be hanging out in my bathrobe all day, stinky, just writing, and my mom allowed me to do this-as long as I was writing songs. She said, 'As long as you're seriously working on music, I'll support you. Don't get a job, because if you work, it will crush you.

Rufus Wainwright

#90. And it didn't matter how many songs or poems had already been written about them, because whenever he thought about the girl, the stars shone brighter. As if she were the one keeping them illuminated.

Stephanie Perkins

#91. Musicians make up for the copies of their songs that get pirated by performing live. I don't think there will be as many people showing up to hear me read as to hear Beyonce sing. We need to make sure piracy is dealt with effectively.

Scott Turow

#92. Stevie Wonder's 'Songs in the Key of Life' was on constant shuffle throughout my childhood. I remember my dad playing some stellar Max Roach albums as well.

Daniel Breaker

#93. Because as much as I love figuring out other people's puzzles, and love putting words together in ways that feel good to sing and sound good together and suit the melody, I think most of the best songs in the world are fairly clear about what they mean to say.

J. Robbins

#94. My first album, 'Get Lifted,' was a hip-hop soul album that had some of its roots in the church, as far as the sonic choices, in the way that I sing and write songs. I have always had that as part of my background and part of my influence when I am making music.

John Legend

#95. You do try to write songs that you feel like people can relate to and you try to be as honest as you can so that people hear your records and they feel like, "Oh, my god. This is exactly how I feel. I went through this."

Sevyn Streeter

#96. In life you can get a feeling which is part of a person, the same as in the songs. Music is almost our representation of our fantasies and so our songs are representations of our fantasies.

Steve Winwood

#97. Listen to the trees as they sway in the wind.
Their leaves are telling secrets. Their bark sings songs of olden days as it grows around the trunks. And their roots give names to all things.
Their language has been lost.
But not the gestures.

Vera Nazarian

#98. When people are amped up, they listen to more upbeat, loud songs. A Frank Sinatra album sets a certain mood, just as a Clash record sets another.

Mark Hoppus

#99. When I did get married and then had children, it was Beatles' songs I sang to them at night. As one of the youngest of 24 cousins, I had never held an infant or baby-sat. I didn't know any lullabies, so I sang Sam and Grace to sleep with 'I Will' and 'P.S. I Love You.'

Ann Hood

#100. We all love to sing along with our favorite songs. We sing in the car, in the shower, and at the karaoke bar. The problem is that half the time we don't know what we're singing. We're making up lyrics as we go along and hoping no one will notice.

Shawn Amos