Songwriting Quotes

Well, our songwriting process is pretty collective.

I respect country music because I feel like it's more about the talent and the songwriting and I put on a big show and we have a lot of stuff, but I feel confident in myself enough as an artist and a singer that I can have all of those fun toys and know that we don't need all the bells and whistles either.

George Harrison is perhaps one of the most creative people I ever met, not only in his music and songwriting, but just the way he lived his life, decorated his gardens and homes. He was a dear friend of mine. His entire approach to music was very unique.

Songwriting is too mysterious and uncontrolled a process for me to direct it towards any one thing.

We have this really retro vibe and style of songwriting and, personally, I wasn't embracing the current state of music until I fell in love with hip-hop. It felt good to suddenly embrace where music was headed, and I think hip-hop is the best at that, because it feels so progressive and everybody wants to be the best.

Probably most successful songwriters have an innate songwriting ability.

For me, songwriting is something like breathing: I just do it. But that doesn't mean you're fantastic.

I think that songwriting changed when groups started spending more time in the studio.

I have a weird life because I live on songwriting royalties, which are a strange income. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn't.

Songwriting is kind of like a craft. It's not something that just comes in a dream. You've got to work at it.

That is what intrigues me; songwriting and song structure and expression.

What I took back, because of my exposure to the Jewish music of the 30s and the 40s in my upbringing with my father, was that kind of theatrical songwriting. It was always a part of my character. This desire to make people laugh.

But if you want to be a songwriter-based musician, whether you play punk or rock or country or jazz, whatever, you have to work on your songwriting and you have to work on being able to play in front of people, I think. That performance is how you create the groundwork for a lasting career.

The songwriting of Hall & Oates is deceptively complex. There are a number of key changes that pass you by as you're listening to the song because they're so seamless and clever.

Everything in life influences my music. I've always used songwriting as a means to share what I think is profound.

For a songwriter, you don't really go to songwriting school; you learn by listening to tunes. And you try to understand them and take them apart and see what they're made of, and wonder if you can make one, too.

Songwriting is the other weight on the opposite side of the scale from touring. They balance me out creatively.

The songwriting has never really stepped forward from the '50's.

There's a lot of personal stuff that can go into songwriting but there's also a lot of dramatization and fictionalization. You have to do that to make a good song.

I consider music to be storytelling, melody and rhythm. A lot of hip-hop has broken music down. There are no instruments and no songwriting. So you're left with just storytelling and rhythm. And the storytelling can be so braggadocious, you're just left with rhythm.

My songwriting is like extending a hand to the listener.

Songwriting is an art unto itself, not to be confused with performing.

Songwriting is my gift from God.

Where I've arrived now is the product of mixing the very straight with the very exploratory; there's a fine line between the two, although it tends to be getting straighter and straighter because my songwriting is getting better.

I don't enjoy songwriting.

My songs are basically my diaries. Some of my best songwriting has come out of time when I've been going through a personal nightmare.

Songwriting's a weird game.

I mean Gorilla was really our first sort of goes at songwriting.

With acting I am being led by the script, other actors, the director, etc. But with songwriting I feel it is much more self reliant and allows me to be in the creative experience without being as dependent on others.

It's not that I have resisted songwriting, it's just not something I felt I have had to do. I've just not woken up and thought, I must do this. But I have often heard music that I have instantly felt 'I have to sing that song'.