Song Quotes

I was five years old when I wrote my first song. It was out of longing for my father that I wrote it.

I think that a song, when it works, never mind a piece of long form music, even a song is something that speaks to itself but has a language all of its own, ideally.

If there's a song where there's a possibility of guitar stuff that would be fun to listen to, go for it. Don't worry about what anybody thinks.

As a horn player, the greatest compliment one can get is when a person comes to you and says, 'I heard this saxophone on the radio the other day and I knew it was you. I don't know the song, but I know it was you on sax.'

I just get an idea and then all of a sudden I've got a song.

Back when I was jamming with Axl and the guys they had boxes of cassettes with song ideas. How do you know which ones you like now when you have that many ideas.

If you want me to sing this Christmas song with the feeling and the meaning, you better see if you can locate that check.

I try to find little things that you can do to move the song along and things that serve the song.

I am moved more by melodies, song structure, and evocative textures.

In Torch Song, I did that character almost non-stop from 1978 until I made the movie in 1987. Then I had some failure, which also colors how you react to doing other things.

I can play songs that I hear from a movie and just play it a few times on the keyboard. I will hit all the notes on the keyboard until I find the right key, and then I will play the rest of the song.

When a song gets its legs and begins to come to me, this is the euphoric hook that keeps me wanting to continue.

A love song is just a caress set to music.

And now that Martina McBride knows of T.I., and T.I. knows of Martina McBride, that made me very happy, too. It's introducing worlds to different people and bringing them together with a song.

Now, performing is second nature and I love every second of it. It is a very emotional thing when I can't play a song; maybe I'm hitting on something that I don't want to deal with. All of it is so personal. It is like therapy.

Once I've written a song, I sometimes refine them.

Our approach makes it so if you hear a said song of ours in 2003 and then you hear it again in 2009 it's probably evolved and changed a good bit, and hopefully for the better.

The way I like to start a new project is to take a cover song and make a stab at it, ideally one that has nothing to do with the people in the room.

It's actually harder to write a fun song.

People are quite shocked when you remind them that Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra never wrote a song that they recorded in their lives, as far as I know.

The songwriter mustn't fall in love with his own song. If it doesn't belong, he can't push it into a show. Let him save it; maybe it'll fit in another show.

I'm not blowing my own trumpet here, but I made a rap song 20 years ago with Afrika Bambaataa.

It's about giving the people what they want. So many people have told me that they've made love to my records so what I've delivered this time is an album about sex. Pretty much every song has that theme. Straight no chasers, it's booty music!

What I say is from my heart. You must be sincere. So when I sing a song, people are supposed to feel it.

A stand-up comic is judged by every line. Singers get applause at the end of their song no matter how bad they are.

For Stevie, the words are of prime importance; the song moves around the words, rather than the words moving around the song.

A song versus an album is not like a scene versus a play.

If it's a good song and it fits me, that's what I'm going to do, I'm not out there trying to change the world. I'm just out there trying to sing country music the best way I can.

To fans in a festival setting it's like a picnic. You want to have a good time with your friends in that crowd. And in the background you hear the band play, 'Oh, that's my favorite song!' everyone is there to enjoy the afternoon and that's about it.

Even if I don't release it myself, somebody else might hear it and want to record it. When you write a song, it gives it that potential.