Songwriter Quotes

First and foremost, I consider myself a songwriter.

When you're a songwriter and you click with someone, you tend to want to keep writing with that person.

I just hate to be in one corner. I hate to be put as only a guitar player, or either only as a songwriter, or only as a tap dancer. I like to move around.

I think people appreciate a songwriter who shows different sides.

The whole angst thing is cool, but if that's all you've got, it's just boring. Everything I write, whether it's happy or sad, has a sense of humor to it.

As a songwriter, I'm not necessarily writing about myself or my life.

Obviously everybody knows that I'm an original songwriter and I got my band.

And the guys in 'Sugar Money,' no matter what, are part of my family and they always got something to do with me, and I don't care if they just hang out with me.

Being sent away to boarding school at seven is as great an inspiration as any songwriter could have - to be taken away from one's family and locked away for 10 years. It does create an incredible intensity of emotion.

Well, as a songwriter, it's really dangerous to use the word love in a song.

It's a word that has been used in songs so many millions of times before, and it's the most popular topic to ever write about.

You have to live what you write, or you have to know it.

There are exceptions, like story songs, where you just have to have your facts straight. But I think you don't have to live a hard life to be a good or interesting songwriter.

Bob Dylan is quite a songwriter, and a great singer and musician.

I won't bother with comparing myself to him, but I will say that I heard his records at a very young age and I still listen to all his records.

I never thought of myself as being a good songwriter.

There are a ton of other people that are good songwriters, but I don't think I'm in the club. What I do well is perform, sometimes sing pretty good, and accompany myself well and arrange fairly well.

I honestly don't class myself as a songwriter.

I've got 'musician' written on my passport. That's even funnier.

Townes van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.

Being a good songwriter means paying attention and sticking your hand out the window to catch the song on the way to someone else's house!

Being a songwriter, singer, and a great part of a unit is more important than being Joe Guitar Hero.

What is qualified? What have I been qualified for in my life? I haven't been qualified to be a mayor. I'm not qualified to be a songwriter. I'm not qualified to be a TV producer. I'm not qualified to be a successful businessman. And so, I don't know what qualified means.

The Bee Gees were always heavily influenced by black music.

As a songwriter, it's never been difficult to pick up on the changing styles of music out there, and soul has always been my favourite genre.

It was kind of like songwriter's boot camp.

You had to produce. You had to produce fast. You had to learn.

The business today is completely different and it's very producer driven, so that a songwriter needs to have producing chops, be a singer/songwriter, or find a singer to develop.

As a songwriter, there's nothing better than winning Song Of The Year.

But I couldn't really celebrate, because it wasn't right. Luther wasn't standing next to me, to receive the award.

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.

I'd hate to be a songwriter starting a career today.

I find writing songs hard, because it does not come naturally to me.

I never set out to be a songwriter or a singer.

My brother is an excellent songwriter, and I play guitar and drums.

I like working with other people but I'm not a songwriter, I'm a producer.

I never considered myself a songwriter, but now since I've been working with Nick Lowe, I am contributing to an extent. But I'm the guitarist and he's not, so we compliment each other in a way.

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.

A lot of our tracks have sounded a lot better than I thought they would because of recording, mixing, and because I probably didn't hear it that way. I'm not a songwriter.

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... '

You get a letter from her agency embracing you into the family that says, 'It is our goal now to help you achieve your dream of being a songwriter, in John's memory.'

Whenever I fill out the job description I put 'songwriter,' never 'singer' or 'artist.' Singers come and go.

In many ways, Viv and I were the only ones who were really songwriters.

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.

It's unfortunate we've never been just songwriters.

As a songwriter, if you can touch people and make them feel a little less alone in the world, then you've done your job.

I think if you're a good songwriter, that's what you are first - not a star or celebrity.

I still have my first paycheck. It was just, I think, a dollar or two that I got when I started as a songwriter with BMI, and I had some songs there that I had through the company, and in the mail I got this big old check for, like, a dollar and a half or something. Somebody had recorded one of my songs.

That little Miley Cyrus... she's like a little Elvis. The kids love her because she's Hannah Montana, but what people don't realize about her is she is such a fantastic singer and songwriter. She writes songs like she's 40 years old!

As a songwriter, you respect and appreciate the writings of other people, and I often get asked, are there songs out there I wish I'd written? Yes. There's many of them!

When I heard 'Jesus, Take the Wheel,' I was like, OK.

Some people look at it as a song written for an American Idol, Carrie Underwood, who is wonderful. But when you're a songwriter listening to a song, you hear something else. I heard that song, and wow.

There's so much about Dolly Parton that every female artist should look to, whether it's reading her quotes or reading her interviews or going to one of her live shows. She's been such an amazing example to every female songwriter out there.

One of my goals from really early on was that if I was ever fortunate enough to be successful in music, I would want to stay the same person and the same songwriter.

I'm a songwriter. Everything affects me.

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.

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.

You have to face the fact that I have no reputation as a composer;

I have my reputation as a songwriter and a performer-and that opportunity came this summer, when I was invited to perform at the Lincoln Centre festival in New York... three nights.

My theory is this; I'm not a political songwriter. I'm an honest songwriter.