130 Songwriting Quotes

Following is our list of songwriting quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about music and songwriting.

Quick Jump To

Famous Songwriting Quotes

Writing the songs and producing the songs and arranging them and recording them is your canvas and your palette and your brush. — Scott Weiland

Songwriting is different from music, although I don't deny now that it would be nice to have a little more background in music theory. — Neil Diamond

To me, songwriting is the backbone of Nashville. Looks can go, fads can go, but a good song lasts forever. — Alan Jackson

I compose my own stuff. I've been writing songs with words. I've been playing more on the keyboard because I can transpose it to sheet music on the computer. — Alicia Witt

If you wanna write a song, ask a guitar — Neil Young

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. — Gwen Stefani

I've always written songs that were confessional, acoustic, wordy - my writing style matches my personality. The music always has to match the mouth it comes out of. — Camila Cabello

I'm a songwriter who's put my childhood memories and teenage angst into songs. — Paula Cole

Writing songs is cheaper than going to therapy. — Brent Smith

You can't write a song out of thin air you have to feel and know what you are writing about. — Irving Berlin

Lyric writing is an interesting process in Sonic Youth. There's three people writing now, and we've all had a lot of interest and involvement with expression through words — Thurston Moore

The human mind is a wonderful thing, it starts working from before you're born and doesn't stop till you sit down to write a song. — Roger Miller

All of a sudden there's a song - there in your hotel room playing your guitar - and you write it, and two or three years later it will come true. It keeps you on your toes. — Townes Van Zandt

My songwriting and my style became more complex as I listened, learned, borrowed and stole and put my music together. — Boz Scaggs

Writing songs is about trying to connect with people on a deeper spiritual level - but I'm not a fan of contemporary Christian music. — Ryan Tedder

Short Songwriting Quotes

  • Time is a precious thing. Never waste it. — Gene Wilder
  • People don't run out of dreams - people just run out of time. — Glenn Frey
  • It's a folk singer's job to comfort disturbed people and to disturb comfortable people — Woody Guthrie
  • To play without passion is inexcusable! — Ludwig van Beethoven
  • Compassion is an action word with no boundaries. — Prince
  • But life is just a party, and parties weren't meant to last. — Prince
  • When you look ahead and darkness is all you see, faith and determination will pull you through. — Drake
  • Haters are just confused admirers because they can't figure out the reason why everyone loves you. — Jeffree Star
  • The most valuable lessons in life cannot be taught, they must be experienced. — Liam Payne
  • When you're happy you enjoy the music, but when you're sad you understand the lyrics. — Frank Ocean

Songwriting Image Quotes

I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things. - Tom Waits quote

I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things. — Tom Waits

There's people making babies to my music. That's nice. - Barry White quote

There's people making babies to my music. That's nice. — Barry White

Hands, touching hands, reaching out, touching me, touching you. - Neil Diamond quote

Hands, touching hands, reaching out, touching me, touching you. — Neil Diamond

Thank you so much for breaking my heart because you got me four Grammys. - Sam Smith quote

Thank you so much for breaking my heart because you got me four Grammys. — Sam Smith

Magic is easy if you put your heart into it. - Michael Jackson quote

Magic is easy if you put your heart into it. — Michael Jackson

It's like I know what I gotta say, I just don't know how to say it to you. - Drake quote

It's like I know what I gotta say, I just don't know how to say it to you. — Drake

It's my responsibility as a singer-songwriter to report the news. - John Mellencamp quote

It's my responsibility as a singer-songwriter to report the news. — John Mellencamp

She live in a mindset that I could never move to - Drake quote

She live in a mindset that I could never move to — Drake

You have got to discover you, what you do, and trust it. - Barbra Streisand quote

You have got to discover you, what you do, and trust it. — Barbra Streisand

Inspirational Songwriting Quotes

Beauty isn't about having a pretty face it's about having a pretty mind, a pretty heart, and a pretty soul. — Unknown Author

Wanting to be someone else is a waste of who you are — Kurt Cobain

There are questions I'm still not wise enough to answer, just wise enough to no longer ask. — George Jones

Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul - Plato

Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul — Plato

Remember: In the end, you're not living to impress your friends or your relatives or your coworkers. All of life is for Jesus. — Chris Tomlin

When you are growing up there are two institutional places that affect you most powerfully: the church, which belongs to God, and the public library, which belongs to you. — Keith Richards

When you're moving in the positive, your destination is the brightest star. — Stevie Wonder

Measure yourself by your best moments, not by your worst. We are too prone to judge ourselves by our moments of despondency and depression. — Robert A. Johnson

Being brave means knowing that when you fail, you don't fail forever. - Lana Del Rey

Being brave means knowing that when you fail, you don't fail forever. — Lana Del Rey

You need something to open up a new door, to show you something you seen before but overlooked a hundred times or more — Bob Dylan

Music And Songwriting Quotes

We need to have music that contributes to the well-being of the spirit. Music that cradles people's lives and makes things a little easier. That's what I try to do, and what I want to do. You don't want to close the door on hope. — Merle Haggard

I don't want you to play me a riff that's going to impress Joe Satriani; give me a riff that makes a kid want to go out and buy a guitar and learn to play. — Ozzy Osbourne

I write the vocals last, because I wanted to invent the music first and push the music to the level that I had to compete against it. — Axl Rose

There's no such thing as perfect people. There's no such thing as a perfect life. So come as you are, broken and scarred. Lift up your heart and be amazed and be changed by a perfect God. — Natalie Grant

I go to a very visual place when I'm singing. It's very cinematic and I get this feeling of space. I love when music does that. — Dave Gahan

Love can make you do things that you never thought possible - Phil Collins

Love can make you do things that you never thought possible — Phil Collins

I've made three studio albums and one live one with my brother. It's melodic singer-songwriter acoustic-rock music. — Kevin Bacon

I sit down to the piano regularly at nine-o'clock in the morning and Mesdames les Muses have learned to be on time for that rendezvous. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Yeah, I always listen to both classic and newer folk-influenced music. Singer-songwriter, alternative music. I also listen to more experimental dance music. — Brad Delson

It was a great thrill just to know Roy Orbison, so to play, sing, write hit songs with him and have him in The Traveling Wilburys was beyond my wildest dreams! — Jeff Lynne

What Is A Song Quotes

It's crazy, if you think about it. The God of the universe - the creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and E-minor - loves us with a radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing love. And what is our typical response? We go to church, sing songs, and try not to cuss. — Francis Chan

Music, at its essence, is what gives us memories. And the longer a song has existed in our lives, the more memories we have of it. — Stevie Wonder

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

I see friends who are in different genres of music, and they say they're so burnt playing the same stuff every night. That's why you see a country act wanting to go out and play an old classic rock song. But what cracks me up is that they all want to be Jimmy Buffett. I can't figure that out. — Kid Rock

'Do What You Gotta Do' is a positive, inspirational song that says no matter what it is; whether you're up against challenges or trying to get your dreams and aspirations met, you should do what whatever you have to do shy of killing yourself or someone else. — Angie Stone

For me it always comes down to what is a good song and I'm very old fashioned in the way that I like to make songs that have something classic about them whether you can play them with an orchestra or an electro synthesizer or an acoustic guitar. — Marc Almond

What distinguishes a mathematical model from, say, a poem, a song, a portrait or any other kind of "model," is that the mathematical model is an image or picture of reality painted with logical symbols instead of with words, sounds or watercolors. — John L. Casti

I always knew Gordon Lightfoot was a really great songwriter, but his stuff even sounds better and better all the time. It's just so really good to me. It's just like that's what should be in a dictionary, you know, next to a really good contempory folk song, is a Gordon Lightfoot song. — John Prine

Too many musicians rush through everything with too many notes. I need time to take the picture. A ballad should be a ballad. It's important to understand what the song is saying, and learn how to tell the story. It takes time. I can't rush it. I really can't rush it. — Shirley Horn

A folk song is what's wrong and how to fix it or it could be who's hungry and where their mouth is or who's out of work and where the job is or who's broke and where the money is or who's carrying a gun and where the peace is. — Woody Guthrie

Singer-songwriter Quotes

I have written a song that says: If you ever lose someone dear to you, never say the words, "They're gone," and they'll come back. — Prince

Don’t you love the Oxford Dictionary? When I first read it, I thought it was a really really long poem about everything. — David Bowie

There was a knock on our dressing-room door. Our manager shouted, 'Keith! Ron! The Police are here!' Oh, man, we panicked, flushed everything down the john. Then the door opened and it was Stewart Copeland and Sting. — Keith Richards

You live your life as if it's real.......a thousand kisses deep - Leonard Cohen

You live your life as if it's real.......a thousand kisses deep — Leonard Cohen

A gentleman is someone who can play the accordion, but doesn't. — Tom Waits

Those who are heartless, once cared too much. - Frank Ocean

Those who are heartless, once cared too much. — Frank Ocean

I am the author of my life. Unfortunately, I am writing in pen and can’t erase my mistakes. — Bill Kaulitz

When the Lord opens a door, walk through it. If He doesn’t, just trust. — Kari Jobe

My heart is broke, but I have some glue, help me inhale and mend it with you. — Kurt Cobain

In spite of calamity, He still has a plan for me, And it's working for my good, And it's building my testimony. — Marvin Sapp

Writing Music Quotes

Inspiration is a guest that does not willingly visit the lazy. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

When I open my mouth and sing, the truth comes out. When I write, the truth comes out. I can't lie. That, I think, is one of the strongest elements of my music. When people talk about my writing as though I'm doing it from an accountant's perspective, it really pisses me off. — George Michael

I feel like a ghost wandering in a world grown alien. I cannot cast out the old way of writing and I cannot acquire the new. I have made an intense effort to feel the musical manner of today, but it will not come to me. — Sergei Rachmaninoff

Music expresses that which cannot be put into words. - Victor Hugo

Music expresses that which cannot be put into words. — Victor Hugo

Whether I was in my body or out of my body as I wrote it I know not. God knows. — George Frideric Handel

At the age when Bengali youth almost inevitably writes poetry, I was listening to European classical music. — Satyajit Ray

I'm writing songs that connect to millions of people. And that happens for a reason. I don't really worry too much about people who aren't into it because that's the beauty of music. It's subjective. If every single person in the world loved our music, then that'd be weird. — Matthew Healy

I think its so cool that you can pick up the guitar and create something that didn't exist 5 minutes ago. You can write something that no ones ever heard before. You have music at your fingertips. — Michelle Branch

Ability, when trained, becomes proficiency. Scribbling through training becomes hand writing. Talking through training becomes communication. Noise, under proper training becomes music. Don’t be satisfied with ability. Take the responsibility to make it a proficiency. — Mahatria Ra

It's like a novelist writing far out things. If it makes a point and makes sense, then people like to read that. But if it's off in left field and goes over the edge, you lose it. The same with musical talent, I think. — Johnny Cash

Writing Love Songs Quotes

Certain songs by hearing the rhythm, it tells you that is either a love song or you might be heartbroken or the songs give you the vibes and you just know that certain songs are militant that you have to write. — Dennis Brown

I will always believe in love and I don't care what happens to me or how many times I get my heart broken, or how many breakup songs I write, I'm always going to believe that someday I am going to meet somebody who is actually right for me and he's going to be wonderful and it's going to work out. — Taylor Swift

Only a fool wants war, but once a war starts then it cannot be fought half-heartedly. It cannot even be fought with regret, but must be waged with a savage joy in defeating the enemy, and it is that savage joy that inspires our bards to write their greatest songs about love and war. — Bernard Cornwell

If you told me to write a love song tonight, I'd have a lot of trouble. But if you tell me to write a love song about a girl with a red dress who goes into a bar and is on her fifth martini and is falling off her chair, that's a lot easier, and it makes me free to say anything I want. — Stephen Sondheim

A lot of my songs are fantasy. I can dream up all kinds of things. That's the kind of world I live in. It's very sort of flamboyant, and that's the kind of way I write. I love it — Freddie Mercury

I stay way from that area, and there's only so many songs you can write about love, sex and death. — Peter Steele

When I was a kid I would write songs, little plays, and poetry in school. If you're an adult and you're a poet, it's all about love and pain, but if you're a kid it's, "Does anyone know a word that rhymes with shark?" — Mike Birbiglia

Time to write and sing, to laugh, to listen, to discover, to cry, to love music. — Jeff Buckley

I just can't seem to write songs about peace and love. Yeah right, how do you get that? — Siobhan Fahey

Taylor Swift dates guys so she can write a breakup song about them. I don't think she's dating for love - I think she's dating for creativity. So let's get her off the market and put her in dating detox. If she really wants love, she has to stop writing music about them. — Patti Stanger

People Writing About Songwriting

Name Quotes Likes
Read quotes by Prince

Prince
quotes on love, life and death

182 16465
Read quotes by Scott Weiland

Scott Weiland
quotes on love, life and death

46 360
Read quotes by Neil Diamond

Neil Diamond

114 457
Read quotes by Alan Jackson

Alan Jackson

55 402
Read quotes by Alicia Witt

Alicia Witt
quotes on life, love and relationships

25 127
Read quotes by Neil Young

Neil Young
quotes on life, freedom

268 1549

More Songwriting Quotes

Songwriting ability is a gift. After a while, you come to realize, "I've really been blessed. I can write these things and it makes me happy, and it makes millions of people happy." It's an obligation, it's bigger than you. It's the only true magic I know. It's not pulling a rabbit out of a hat; it's real. It's your soul floating out to theirs. — Tom Petty

We don't wear sequins because we think we're great. We wear them because we think sequins are great. — Gram Parsons

In Conclusion

Which quotation resonated with you best? Did you enjoy our collection of songwriting quotes? Or may be you have a slogan about songwriting to suggest. Let us know using our contact form.

Citation

Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes in this collection of songwriting quotations. For popular citation styles(APA, Chicago, MLA), please use this citation page.

Embed HTML Link

Copy and paste this HTML code in your webpage