Top 100 Songwriter Quotes
#1. What I definitely learnt from Michael Jackson is that simple is almost always better. As a songwriter, as an artist period.
Ne-Yo
#2. The generation I grew up in was the beginning of "stand up for yourself," whether being a singer-songwriter or a feminist. In my college years, the feminist movement was really coming to fore, so we wouldn't have put up with guys treating us less than equal.
Bonnie Raitt
#3. And this whole period of time of gradually working at being a better guitar player and songwriter have gradually led me to the point where I feel I'm doing a clearer representation of the thing that I've been feeling inside me since I was four years old.
John Frusciante
#4. Very unique: I was a singer-songwriter-guitarist. Very unusual in the late Seventies to find a singer-songwriter, and on top of that, a guitarist.
Andy Kindler
#5. 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
#6. 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
#7. I was a songwriter and I've written some good songs, but there are lots of greater songs that I know I have inside yet to come out.
Jimmy Cliff
#8. 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
#9. I've never gotten thick skin. If you close yourself off and you get this protective armor, there is a price you pay with that - of not feeling. And feeling is important when you are a songwriter.
Taylor Swift
#10. My brother sings. My brother is a singer-songwriter. His name is Parker Ainsworth. He changed his last name to his middle name.
Lauren Worsham
#11. As a songwriter or artist, there's only so many ways you can say, 'I love you' or 'I think you're beautiful.'
Tyler Farr
#12. The truth is, I initially became a singer-songwriter while still in my teens because it was the only way to guarantee that somebody on earth would sing the songs I was writing. Since then, I've performed just about everywhere: rock clubs, concerts halls, arenas, TV.
Rupert Holmes
#13. A songwriter writes songs all the time, whereas just writing a song can be done by anyone, anytime.
Bryan Adams
#14. There's a standard of songwriting that, when you start immersing yourself in those types of songs, it raises your own bar as a songwriter. There's also simplicity in the songwriting. It's much harder to be simple than it is to be complicated.
Sinead O'Connor
#15. I'm a songwriter who just wants to bring people great songs.
Ester Dean
#16. It is cool to have a label head that is also a songwriter, in a band, and produces records.
Rivers Cuomo
#17. I'm a record producer and songwriter; I'm a problem-solver.
Nile Rodgers
#18. I don't know why songwriters struggle. They have to, I guess. If you're a young songwriter, quit struggling. It makes you look bad.
Tom T. Hall
#19. As a songwriter I hate this whole, 'If it's a sad song, it has to sound like a sad song thing.' And that goes all the way back to my days with the Format. I'm an insane narcissist, so if I have to get something off my chest, I'll get something off my chest.
Nate Ruess
#20. I'm not particularly good at anything. I'm not an incredible guitarist or piano player or songwriter. I think what I do is, when I notice someone is really good at something, I try to get that out of them.
Benny Blanco
#21. If somebody says 'singer-songwriter' to me, the first person I think of is James Taylor. There are plenty of modern singer-songwriters, but there is something about James Taylor that has always resonated with me.
Zachary Levi
#22. I've known the glory of the stage and the glory of the spotlight. I still crave it. I want to be on 'American Bandstand' and 'Soul Train' as a solo artist. As a producer, songwriter and arranger, I help other artists say what they want to say. But on my records, I say what I want to say.
Narada Michael Walden
#23. 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
#24. 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
#25. Therapy really did prepare me to become an empathic songwriter. As far as advice goes, it's a matter of self understanding first.
William Fitzsimmons
#26. 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
#27. I swear I pick up little gems from every artist that I work with. That's why I'm so appreciative that I've been able to be a songwriter first.
Sevyn Streeter
#28. 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
#29. My brother is an excellent songwriter, and I play guitar and drums.
Jeremy London
#30. You know, he likes me because I'm his son. I have to go long and far to find someone who knows me just as me, rather than me the songwriter or whatever.
Paul Westerberg
#31. Being a songwriter is really the base of being an artist, for me.
Kelsea Ballerini
#32. I may not be the most famous songwriter in the world, but you know a David Friedman song when you hear it. It took me a long time to appreciate that.
David Friedman
#33. I definitely consider myself a songwriter first because that's my best attribute.
Chad Kroeger
#34. 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
#35. That's something that I think as a songwriter you have to ask yourself - why you're doing it. The world certainly doesn't need more songs. Are you doing it just for your ego?
Jeff Tweedy
#36. 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
#37. Adam Ezra writes with the heart of a troubadour and sings like a rock star. He is truely a fresh voice in singer/songwriter scene.
Catie Curtis
#38. To have a songwriter that wrote so specifically what I felt to be true ... I've never been much of an actor either. If something is real for me, then I can do it.
Barry McGuire
#39. Being a songwriter does not rely on an audience or other band members or a camera. I can just sit in a room and write songs.
Rick Springfield
#40. I'm not really a songwriter - I'm an interpreter. So in a sense I am an actress first and foremost. I act out the songs, and I lead with my heart.
Diana Ross
#41. Video is a funny thing. It's one thing to be an artist, singer-songwriter, and use words and create pictures in people's minds. And then be asked to do video for it, to actually give a certain visual for your song.
Melissa Etheridge
#42. He asked if I was a songwriter, and I said yeah, that I was in town because I'd won this contest. He said, okay, then he was gonna play me his hit, and started singing 'When it's time to relax, one beer stands clear ... '
Arthur Godfrey
#43. If you're a songwriter, it's to perform your songs. For singers, it's just to get to sing somewhere. So while there may be a reluctance with all the things that go along with it, you got to choose, and this is one of my big opportunities to get back doing it.
Donnie Fritts
#44. I think Everclear is a weird combination of a singer-songwriter and a hard-rock band. That's why some people really dig the band, and some don't.
Art Alexakis
#45. "Country" has become a marketing term, but I see myself as a songwriter.
Rosanne Cash
#46. It's amazing how a truly great songwriter can touch anyone in the world with their words.
Christina Aguilera
#47. Music is entirely subjective. I was thinking that for myself, for songwriting and what I like to listen to, to help motivate me as a songwriter, as a musician, there are certain things I lean towards and certain things I don't.
Marnie Stern
#49. I have always been a singer/songwriter, and I was pushed in places I didn't want to do, like pop or top forty. I don't belong there.
Lisa Marie Presley
#50. I never look for music by genre. I look for an artist who puts a dependable trademark on things. Like Elvis Costello - he's a great songwriter who presents his songs in a number of contexts. I feel the same about my own music.
Todd Rundgren
#51. Social media is a giant distraction to the ultimate aim, which is honing your craft as a songwriter. There are people who are exceptional at it, however, and if you can do both things, then that's fantastic, but if you are a writer, the time is better spent on a clever lyric than a clever tweet.
Bryan Adams
#52. I think one thing you could probably say for all my albums is that they're all pretty eclectic pop. There's always a little bit of urban influence, some dance, a little bit of country, singer-songwriter, pop-rock. I like everything! On every album you can find that.
Kelly Clarkson
#53. Bowie is probably my favorite all-around songwriter and performer and personality. His ability to change over the years is such an inspiration. I love 'Young Americans' and 'Fame.'
Scott Weiland
#54. I think the singer/songwriter genre is going to be like bluegrass and jazz. You can make a living at it, but it's not part of the musical mainstream anymore.
Steve Earle
#55. I always wanted to be an artist; being a songwriter for myself was always a must but being a songwriter for others has been a bonus.
Jessie J.
#56. 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
#57. As a songwriter, I was influenced by David Bowie - a great writer. A class above everybody in so many ways. Lennon and McCartney, of course. Class stuff. David Cousins was my favorite lyricist.
Rick Wakeman
#58. Ohhhso hard to say, but George Harrison was pretty darn special. Such a great guybeautiful person and amazing songwriter/musician. A real honor for me to have played on his last tour
Chuck Leavell
#59. Melanie Fiona is a singer, a songwriter, she's a super-girl. I can be silly, goofy, really chilled. She's like your cool chill girlfriend, sister-friend. I'm just like everybody else.
Melanie Fiona
#60. Working as a musician, I have to constantly generate new material, so school keeps me sharp. Reading and writing all the time helps me to be a better songwriter.
Kate Voegele
#61. I'm a songwriter, and I understand artistic licence. We can embellish, go on little journeys and explore our inner selves. It can be quite self-indulgent.
Laura Marling
#62. Everybody wants to write a hit song, but in Nashville people want to write the best song, which was my original intention as a singer/songwriter.
Melissa Manchester
#63. I'm not a great guitarist, but I do bits and bobs. I'm mainly a songwriter and a composer. I've done a lot of scoring and some stuff for British pop music that did pretty well, but I've mainly been working on my own stuff with Duncan Sheik.
Matthew James Thomas
#64. You don't just wake up one morning and decide to become a singer-songwriter.
Karen Elson
#65. Not being a natural songwriter ... for me the appreciation of a great song and the writers came early on, growing up in a musical family. My dad got to sing songs by some of the greatest writers of all time, Rodgers and Hammerstein.
Bonnie Raitt
#66. As part of Depeche Mode, I don't think it's right for me to be using my own songs for a solo project. I'm not a very prolific songwriter, so I keep those for Depeche Mode.
Martin Gore
#67. Morley is one of the outstanding voices of her generation, as a singer, songwriter and bandleader she's in a class of her own, transcends all categories and is making a major contribution to contemporary music.
David Amram
#68. L.A.'s cool; I had a run with it to where it just pretty much wore me out. I love the weather and I have great friends there, great family, but I really cannot take a lot of the culture. Like Nashville, where everybody's a songwriter, everybody out there is an actor.
Shooter Jennings
#69. I'm not only a songwriter but I'm a massive music fan and I love going to shows. It's different than reading a book.
Craig Finn
#70. Whenever a songwriter writes a big hit, then the next 20 songs they write - no matter how bad they are - get recorded.
Ahmet Ertegun
#71. I'm not a virtuoso on an instrument. You know, I'm not always singing in pitch. I laugh sometimes my way through the shows, but I'm an honest songwriter who's always tried to bring the audience with me on my journey in hopes that they see their own lives reflected in the work.
Jason Mraz
#72. The most important thing to me as a songwriter is the breath. The most important thing I could say to somebody is, 'Sometimes I just breathe you in.'
Tori Amos
#73. 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
#74. I've always felt, even as a songwriter, that the rhythm of speech is in itself a language for me.
Cyndi Lauper
#75. As a singer and songwriter, I have great admiration for many of the budding stars who come to try their hand at performing and can relate to the hopes and aspirations of all the contestants, no matter how good or bad.
LeAnn Rimes
#76. And that's the kind of thing people think, you know, that if you sign up to be a singer-songwriter you know how to deal with people setting up hate websites, or people being obsessed with you and crying when you touch them, but you don't, and you just have to deal with.
Jessie J.
#77. As a musician and a songwriter, it is an act of the ego to believe that other people might be interested in your point of view. But it is usually an empathetic nature that gets you going in the first place.
Bono
#78. I don't think I'm a political songwriter as much as I am just a political person. I think it's in my fabric.
Steve Earle
#79. 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
#80. I am a songwriter at heart, and I feel like I would, in the future, write songs for other people. I don't think I want to pursue it for myself, for a solo career.
Dean Geyer
#81. I feel I want to grow as an actress and be better. I want to progress as a singer and songwriter, and produce movies and everything. So there'll be no time when I feel I've done it all.
Jennifer Lopez
#82. I think that I have come at it backwards in a way because a lot of what I'm doing as a songwriter is not incredibly intentional. There's a moment that happens which creates the song or the actual idea for a song, and then I'm like, "Oh, it's this kind of song."
Mirah
#83. 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
#84. I think if you're a good songwriter, that's what you are first - not a star or celebrity.
Tom Cochrane
#85. I've only been to Ireland once, and I felt I would wake up with voices in my head, almost like music, and that if I were a songwriter, I would be very inspired.
Morrissey
#86. You always have to work to become a better singer, songwriter and performer.
Luke Bryan
#87. 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
#88. As a songwriter, pop music really is a love and a joy and a science, and I feel like a lot of people look at pop music with a very formulaic perspective in numbers and patterns, but an outsider would think that the process is very natural.
Halsey
#89. I don't want to live in an ivory tower, being the songwriter who just turns inward.
Billie Joe Armstrong
#90. Getting on stage, for me, was a huge thing when I first started. And back in high school, everyone was in rock bands and I was a singer/songwriter. It just seems kind of lame.
Tyler Hilton
#91. As a singer-songwriter, what I do is write about how the human feels.
Bjork
#92. 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
#93. I have felt for a long time that I want to return back to being a singer-songwriter for a period of time. I will go back to Broadway. But I want to make the right choices about why to go back and when I am ready to go back.
Tony Vincent
#94. I'd hate to be a songwriter starting a career today.
Otis Blackwell
#95. Nathan McEuen's light is shining bright. A fine singer, guitarist and an excellent songwriter. There is hope on the horizon.
Chris Hillman
#96. If you like someone's work, the important thing is to be exposed to everything that person has been exposed to. Anyone who wants to be a songwriter should listen to as much folk music as they can, study the form and structure of stuff that has been around for 100 years.
Bob Dylan
#97. Nobody in my family was musical. I had no idea you could be a songwriter and make a living at it. It was all discovery. It was all just thrown at me.
Valerie Simpson
#98. I'm a terrible sentence finisher. I think that's why I'm a songwriter. When you write a song, there are no rules, and I think that I talk as if there are no rules. But then I run this great risk of no one understanding me at all.
Mirah
#99. Irving Berlin was the greatest songwriter of all time. I was in awe of him. But his music wasn't my music. My music was the blues.
Jerry Leiber
#100. I am nervous that the craft of songwriting is taking a nose dive ... And since I'm a songwriter and I connect with an interpretative, you know, interpretation of a song, I miss it. I just miss it.
Barry Manilow
