Songwriters Quotes

“Now, as I understand it, the bards were feared. They were respected, but more than that they were feared. If you were just some magician, if you'd pissed off some witch, then what's she gonna do, she's gonna put a curse on you, and what's gonna happen? Your hens are gonna lay funny, your milk's gonna go sour, maybe one of your kids is gonna get a hare-lip or something like that — no big deal.

You piss off a bard, and forget about putting a curse on you, he might put a satire on you. And if he was a skilful bard, he puts a satire on you, it destroys you in the eyes of your community, it shows you up as ridiculous, lame, pathetic, worthless, in the eyes of your community, in the eyes of your family, in the eyes of your children, in the eyes of yourself, and if it's a particularly good bard, and he's written a particularly good satire, then three hundred years after you're dead, people are still gonna be laughing, at what a twat you were.”
― Alan Moore

“Deep within I'm shaken by the violence of existing for only you...”
― Sarah McLachlan

“Why do I write? Out of fear. Out of fear that the memory of the people I write about might go lost. Out of fear that the memory of myself might get lost. Or even just to be shielded by a story, to slip inside a story and stop being recognizable, controllable, subject to blackmail.”
― Fabrizio De André

“Here is to all the brilliant minds that love deeply, for they write the stories that make us dream of true love. Here is to all the visionaries that create a miracle when others give up hope. Here is to all the artists, musicians, actors, singers, songwriters, dancers, screenwriters, philosophers, inventors and poetic hearts that create a perspective of heaven we can experience in this lifetime. But most of all, here is to the wild souls that the world calls broken, insane, abnormal, weird or different because they are the ones that renew our faith, by what they overcome and create, in a world that needs a sign that God doesn’t forget the least of us.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“Increasing the volume does not improve the quality of a bad song.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Giving all you have will leave you with nothing to lose.”
― Brandon Jenner

“When I discovered music — when I discovered the craft of shaping a song — my being fell into place.”
― Charlotte Eriksson

“Pythagoras felt that specific notes affected people to very minute gradations of feeling. And every songwriter, I think, knows that D is a great key for a long song. It just happens to work. And B flat is always a great jump key for jazz.
~ Janis Ian”
― Paul Zollo, Songwriters On Songwriting

“I can't discard a verse before it is written because it is the writing of the verse that produces whatever delights or interests or facets that are going to catch the light. The cutting of the gem has to be finished before you can see whether it shines. You can't discover that in the raw. ~ Leonard Cohen”
― Paul Zollo, Songwriters On Songwriting

“Whenever an artist becomes dominated by his own ignorance, his art loses value, for it is only the professional artist that can be humble enough to admit that he is a tool in the hands of creativity.”
― Robin Sacredfire

“I believe in peace.
I believe in people.
I'll believe in you,
If you believe in me too.
Give all you can,
Then nothing can be taken from you.
I believe in love.
I believe it's simple.
Listen to your heart:
Everyone is equal.
Giving all you have
Will leave you with nothing to lose.”
― Brandon Jenner

“Give all you can. Then nothing can be taken from you.”
― Brandon Jenner

“Ethics and Songwriting (The Sonnet)

I wish I could write music,
For one song is worth ten sonnets.
One sonnet is worth ten essays,
One essay is worth ten speeches.
That's why I have respect for those,
Singers who do their own writing.
While I pity the empty entertainers,
Who do nothing but counterfeiting.
It's okay if you sing someone's song,
At least make way for equal recognition.
Exploiting talent 'cause they're struggling,
Is fundamentally a human rights violation.
Every industry lacks ethics in its story of origin.
It's time we right the wrongs and get humanizing.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Amantes Assemble: 100 Sonnets of Servant Sultans

“Queen gave music a purpose in life and death.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“The Hollies brought music to life.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“But Beautiful' is such a moving tribute to love that it verges on a hymn, yet Van Heusen's own love life was anything but holy. His little black book was said to be the envy of Hollywood, which is like being praised for your cooking in Paris.”
― Wilfrid Sheed, The House That George Built: With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty

“Where a Gershwin song had once said 'Made in New York--Place in a crowded theater immediately,' a Van Heusen song said "Made in the U.S.A.--Sounds best in a lonely bar or an empty apartment where the owner is experiencing sleeping problems due to heartbreak.”
― Wilfrid Sheed, The House That George Built: With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty

“Four days in a row, up at four. a.m. to test fly new Lockheed warplanes until noon, under the name of Chester Babcock; then off to Paramount to write songs for the rest of the day as his other self, Jimmy Van Heusen; the, a two-and-a-half-day break, during which he only had to get up whenever the studio did, to write songs all day this time. Then back to Go, and you can sleep as long as you like when the war is over, buddy.”
― Wilfrid Sheed, The House That George Built: With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty

“At some unknown early date, he [Mercer] took to crossing over regularly to the black side of town, where he immersed himself so deeply in jazz and blues that he would one day receive a citation from a black social group calling him 'our favorite colored singer.' As Hoagy Carmichael, his partner in jazz, would say, 'Johnny knew.' For all his adaptability, there was a black-jazz base in everything Mercer wrote.”
― Wilfrid Sheed, The House That George Built: With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty