Quotes about Writing / Songwriting / Creating — 2010 - 2011

"If I lose the light of the sun, I will write by candlelight, moonlight, no light. If I lose paper and ink, I will write in blood on forgotten walls. I will write always. I will capture nights all over the world and bring them to you." — Henry Rollins, contributed by Sharyn Compton

"[Miranda Lambert is] actually mixing the singer-songwriter philosophy with the commercial country [mindset]. And I find it just inspiring. My hat's off completely, because she's pulling it off, and I couldn't figure out a way to do it." — Allison Moorer, quoted by Jewly Hight in "The Evolution of Miranda Lambert," American Songwriter November / December 2011

"She did get put through the system with a lot of the hit songwriters, who were great songwriters, but it was more like 'This is how it's done here.' It turned her off — not specific people, but the whole system turned her off. And she wanted to do something, I think, that she could play for her friends in Texas and they would say, 'Okay, well you're still Miranda.'" — Frank Liddell, producer, quoted by Jewly Hight in "The Evolution of Miranda Lambert," American Songwriter November / December 2011

"I just feel like it's easier to co-write sometimes, especially if you have chemistry with somebody. It kind of takes all the pressure off of you. But, you know, I started writing songs by myself. I didn't really have a co-writer, besides my dad. When I see a record and it has a song on it that someone wrote [alone], I just really believe in them as a writer. I feel like it's a window into them, more than it is if you write a song with someone else." — Miranda Lambert, quoted by Jewly Hight in "The Evolution of Miranda Lambert," American Songwriter November / December 2011

"People just didn't write songs that were so directly emotional in those days. They still don't. Part of Hank's [Williams] thing was that he was opening up about relationships between men and women in ways that nobody else did, and I think that's something that made him stand out so much. His songs are just so straightforward about these really deep feelings that are universal, but they're so hard to write about without sounding sappy or over the top. You think of men in that era — they didn't express themselves that way." — Michael McCall, quoted by Jewly Hight in "The Evolution of Miranda Lambert" American Songwriter November / December 2011

"Songwriting is a really fortunate skill to have to frame living and to find new ways to observe things you're going through." — Leslie Feist, quoted by Matt Popkin in "Feist: The Road Less Traveled," American Songwriter November / December 2011

"Ideas are floating like fish. Desire for an idea is like a bait on a hook. If you desire an idea, it pulls and it makes a kind of a bait. Ideas will come swimming up. And you don't know them until they enter the conscious mind. And then bingo! There it is! You know it instantly. And then more come in. If you go fishing for ideas, a lot of ideas will just pop in. And one of them will make you fall in love." — David Lynch, quoted by Paul Zollo in "American Icons: David Lynch," American Songwriter November / December 2011

"I've co-written a lot in the last several years. Mainly I just got stuck. I ran out of shit to say. I found that with co-writing, there are a lot of young phenomenal songwriters and guitar players that come over here and write. And I learn so much from these guys. I'll go, 'Wow, how did you think of that? Or, let me learn it.'" — Guy Clark, quoted by Caine O'Rear in "Role Models: Guy Clark," American Songwriter November / December 2011

"Most of the really good songs are dead true. ... It had to have happened to have the song be there. Every time I've tried to make stuff up it just kind of falls flat. So the majority of my work is something that happened to me, I saw happen to someone else, or a friend of mine told me happened. There is a certain amount of theatrical and poetic license. People are supposed to like it, that's why you're doing it. It's supposed to be fun. It's not brain surgery, it's heart surgery. They're just songs." — Guy Clark, quoted by Caine O'Rear in "Role Models: Guy Clark," American Songwriter November / December 2011

"I've gone a year and not written a song just because I couldn't think of anything. But I always come back to it because there's always that little buzz you get when you do something well and sing it out loud to the public. And people clap and tell you how great you are." — Guy Clark, quoted by Caine O'Rear in "Role Models: Guy Clark," American Songwriter November / December 2011

"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning." — Mark Twain, contributed by Chris North

"... the absurdly neurotic role you and the rest of your kind have always attributed to me [Erato, the Goddess Muse of Erotic Poetry] bears no relation at all to reality. As a matter of fact, I was trained as a clinical psychologist. Who simply happens to have specialized in the mental illness that you, in your ignorance, call literature." — John Fowles, Mantissa

"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." — Anton Chekhov, contributed by Sharyn Compton

"Is rule of thumb in writing game: if story requires many long descriptions of smells so vile that will give reader nausea, is not likely to find publisher." — Trixie Koontz, dog, as told to Dean Koontz, "Bliss to You / Trixie's Guide to a Happy Life"

"Paul Simon hears voices. Or, more specifically, one voice. It’s the voice that gave him the phrase 'so beautiful or so what' a few years before it became the title song of his most recent album. It’s the voice that gave him other phrases now deeply woven into the fabric of our culture, such as 'Sound Of Silence,' 'Still Crazy After All These Years,' 'Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover,' and 'Bridge Over Troubled Water.' None of these were contrived; all were ideas that simply arrived, sometimes when he was at his guitar, other times when he wasn’t. But, like any savvy songwriter, he knows it’s a good idea to listen when that voice speaks. And maybe jot it down." — Paul Zollo, "Paul Simon On Songwriting: I Know What I Know," American Songwriter September / October 2011

"Much of songwriting is simply a mystery." — Paul Simon, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Paul Simon On Songwriting: I Know What I Know," American Songwriter September / October 2011

"I don’t really know why an idea comes to me. But all of a sudden, an idea comes and from experience I can intuit what something means when an interesting line pops up. Or I can intuit what an interesting choice might be. And I can try a couple of different choices, and see which one feels right, and then continue the song to see where it goes." — Paul Simon, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Paul Simon On Songwriting: I Know What I Know," American Songwriter September / October 2011

"...most of the time, the songs have jokes in them, little sarcastic things, or purposely kitsch or something. So that’s going along with a story, like I do in life, just talking to myself and making fun of stuff and laughing at stuff that’s serious. And sometimes it’s a good idea to put the laughing into the songs. Sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s all right just to be serious. But most of the songs have some kind of joke in them." — Paul Simon, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Paul Simon On Songwriting: I Know What I Know," American Songwriter September / October 2011

"I really don’t know what exactly all the songs mean. Sometimes other people have meanings and when I hear them I think, 'That’s really a better meaning than I thought, and perfectly valid, given the words that exist.' So part of what makes a song really good is that people take in different meanings, and they apply them, and they might be more powerful than the ones I’m thinking." — Paul Simon, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Paul Simon On Songwriting: I Know What I Know," American Songwriter September / October 2011

"I don’t really like to write at a desk. I like to write when driving in a car. ... Once you’re working on it, you’re working on it all the time, and sometimes stuff’ll come in the middle of the night, in a dream or something. Your mind is working on it all the time." — Paul Simon, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Paul Simon On Songwriting: I Know What I Know," American Songwriter September / October 2011

"I sort of recognize it, as opposed to shaping it. Oh, that’s a good idea, that’s a good line. I wonder where I can use that. And when you get into a rhyme group like ‘not,’ you got a lot of rhymes, you got a lot of choices. The more you do it, the luckier you get." — Paul Simon, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Paul Simon On Songwriting: I Know What I Know," American Songwriter September / October 2011

"I just said, you know, this is a great track but this lyric, I don’t believe it. It sounds like I’m trying to say something, instead of it naturally coming out of me, like I was saying something that I already knew. Anyway, I can’t remember what it was. And either I threw it all out or I threw 90 percent of it out, and kept a line or two. That’s happened a couple of times to me. Not too often, but a couple of times. Very aggravating when it does happen." — Paul Simon, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Paul Simon On Songwriting: I Know What I Know," American Songwriter September / October 2011

"The words come. Usually, it’s a long time before they come. And then when they start to come, it doesn’t take so long for it to be finished. It takes a long time to begin. And then it sort of gets finished." — Paul Simon, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Paul Simon On Songwriting: I Know What I Know," American Songwriter September / October 2011

"Most of the time, when I had hits as a soloist – maybe not so much with Simon & Garfunkel – I was surprised they were hits. I didn’t know what the hits were. I never thought that 'Loves Me Like A Rock' was going to be a hit, or 'Mother And Child Reunion,' or '50 Ways To Leave Your Lover.' They didn’t sound like what the hits sounded like at the time. Radio was more open to things that weren’t exactly what every other hit was." — Paul Simon, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Paul Simon On Songwriting: I Know What I Know," American Songwriter September / October 2011

"...sometimes they have elements that could be shared with poetry. But they’re not poems. They’re lyrics. They’re meant to be sung. They come out of the rhythm of the music, as opposed to creating your own rhythm of the words.
" And there’s much more use of cliché in songwriting than there is in poetry, because a song is going at a certain tempo and it’s going fast, and if you miss a line, you missed it. But when you’re reading poetry, you read it at a much slower pace. So the lines can be much more dense, and have words which are not usually in a speaking vocabulary, and which carry multiple meanings. Because you can slow it down so you can get it.
" But in a song, it’s clocking along, and if you missed it, it’s gone. And if you miss enough of it, well, the song is gone, and you sort of lose interest." — Paul Simon, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Paul Simon On Songwriting: I Know What I Know," American Songwriter September / October 2011

"The secret of a great melody is a secret." Dave Brubeck, quoted by Paul Zollo in "American Icons: On Writing Melodies, Pt. 1," American Songwriter September / October 2011

"Even if chords are simple, they should rub. They should have dissonances in them. I've always used a lot of alternate bass lines, suspensions, widely spaced voicings. Dfferent textures to get very warm chords. Sometimes you're setting up strange chords by placing a chord in front of it that's going to set it off like a diamond in a gold band. It's not just finding interesting chords, it's how you sequence them, like stringing together pearls on a string. ... Interesting chords will compel interesting melodies. It's very hard to write a boring melody to an interesting chord sequence." — Jimmy Webb, quoted by Paul Zollo in "American Icons: On Writing Melodies, Pt. 1," American Songwriter September / October 2011

"Any quick analysis of a Beatles tune or a Cole Porter tune will reveal often simple but unexpected chords, chords that chromatically shift between keys, or between major and minor." — Paul Zollo, "American Icons: On Writing Melodies, Pt. 1," American Songwriter September / October 2011

"I could send myself right back to the day that I wrote “Angel Of The Morning,” how it felt. I had a buzz through me that morning that was so powerful. I knew I had done something that meant something, because of that feeling. It wasn’t a question of whether other people liked it … I loved it. To me, it had to be one of the most important love stories of all time." — Chip Taylor, quoted by Evan Schlansky in "Chip Taylor: Role Models," American Songwriter September / October 2011

"I try to stand there with my rain bucket every day and see what falls from the sky; sometimes it's nothin' and other times it's sweet water." — Jordan Lawhead, quoted by Dan Kimpel in "Jordan Lawhead Into the Light," Music Connection, Oct 2011

"Our goal is to write memorable songs. We're not there yet, but we're getting closer. Each time we sit down to write, we have hopes of coming up with something that will be remembered forever. That's our dream." — Joel Madden, quoted by Russell Hall in "For Good Charlotte: It's all about the Songwriting," BMI MusicWorld, Summer 2011

"When you write a song it's sometimes in a desperate moment whn you can't really articulate it. What I love about lyrics is what T.S. Eliot said: 'Good poetry is felt before it is heard.' I'm a believer in that. It's those moments when you sit yourself down, and talk to yourself in the mirror." — Marcus Mumford, quoted by Dan Kimpel in "Mumford and Sons: British Bards and the Poetry of the Plains," SESAC Magazine, Spring 2011

"A lot of times I have the song inside of me and I have to fight to get it out. I'm a very visual person, so I can see the song but I can't hear it. But I think that if your music becomes a war for it to happen, in the end there's a certain kind of aggression in the music. And I think that's a lot more interesting." — Zola Jesus (Nika Rosa Danilova), quoted by Peter Cronin in "Hearing Voices with Nola Jesus," SESAC Magazine, Spring 2011

"There are rules that govern creativity. It's cosmic. Some you follow, others you break. And there is the potential for not only good writing, but for your writing to do some good. It's the choosing which defines who we are." — Roger Deitz, "Ragtag Parting Shots: Writing Wrong, Sing Out, Summer 2011

"...study, learn the basics, then search for what it is that will make your work - your work." — Roger Deitz, "Ragtag Parting Shots: Writing Wrong, Sing Out, Summer 2011

"If you try to create a type, you may end with nothing. If you do a good job of creating an individual, you may succeed at creating a type." — F. Scott Fitzgeral, as quoted by Pete Seeger, reported by Roger Deitz, "Ragtag Parting Shots: Writing Wrong, Sing Out, Summer 2011

"[Brad] Klausen ended up working for Pearl Jam for nine years. ...when it came to posters ... the band was remarkably hands-off, letting him draw whatever came into his mind.  Poster ideas can come from anywhere, he says: song lyrics, current events, the history of the city in which the concert is taking place." — Greg Glasgow, " The art of rock'n' roll," University of Denver Magazine

"Songwriting is Hell on Earth. If it isn't, then you're doing it wrong." — Jimmy Webb, contributed by Ed Skibbe

"All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling." — Oscar Wilde, contributed by Ed Skibbe

"Songs are like children. They just kind of happen, but then you have to love them." — Trinity Demask, contributed by Ed Skibbe

"People like to say their songs are like children, but you gotta get those kids out there so they can make some money and pay the rent." — Amanda Shires, quoted by Stephen Deusner in "Amanda Shires: Mystery Girl," American Songwriter, July / August 2011

"While writing, are you listening to your intuition and emotions about a song? Or just fitting lines into a lyrical and musical equation that yo've heard a hundred times before? Don't be afraid to mix it up a little." — David Mead, "How to Make the Whole World Sing: 'Last Goodbye,'" American Songwriter, July / August 2011

"...When the original materials start coming through, it can feel like automatic writing, almost, from the unconscious of from the muse – whatever you want to call that – and it's quite mysterious to me, and it's a powerful feeling when something comes up on the radar. Then you mix and match and change and whittle and throw things out, and those are very conscious decisions which are informed by your style as a songwriter. But that initial stuff, I don'tknow where that comes from. I find thanking whoever sent it to me sometimes, so I could be thanking myself, I'm not sure. It depends on whether hou believe in a higher power or not. I haven't made up my mind on that one yet, but I often raise mhy eyes and say, 'Thanks for that one.'" — Loudon Wainright, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Loudon Wainwright III: On Record," American Songwriter, July / August 2011

"...by the time I wrote those first three songs [for his new CD] … I wanted to push the poetics as hard as I could push them, and not decide the songs were finished until I committed them to whatever the recording format was. I went through drafts right up until I recorded every single one of them...." — Steve Earle, quoted by Jewly Hight in "Steve Earle Sees the Light," American Songwriter, July / August 2011

"There are always meaningful songs form somebody. People are doing their courting, people are finding their wives, people are making babies, people are washing their dishes, people are getting through the day with songs that we may find insignificant. But their significance is affirmed by others. There's always someone affirming the significance of a song by taking a woman into his arms or by getting through the night. That's what dignifies the song. Songs don't dignify human activity. Human activity dignifies the song." — Leonard Cohen, quoted by Paul Zollo in "American Icons: The Test of Time," American Songwriter, July / August 2011

"... the world doesn't need any more songs, [u]nless someone comes along with a pure heart and something to say." — Bob Dylan, quoted by Paul Zollo in "American Icons: The Test of Time," American Songwriter, July / August 2011

"Songwriters share something that a lot of people have. We have crazy thoughts. The only difference is we write 'em down." — Bill Barwick

"Don't let the truth get in the way of a good song." — Heard at an NSAI meeting

"Sometimes a great song is defined as much by what the lyric doesn’t say as what it does. One of the advantages of writing a song as opposed to writing literature, painting a portrait or building a house is the extraordinary context that the music provides for the lyric. Sometimes good melody and chord structure allows a lyricist to say very little, leaving the music to imply the rest of the story. Intriguing plot lines and amazing imagery are impressive, but feel horribly out of place if they crowd the emotional content of the music. The ability to provide just enough information in the lyric is what separates great lyricists from great writers." — David Mead, "How To Make The Whole World Sing: Citizen Cope —'Sideways'," American Songwriter, May / June 2011

“If someone plays a song, some people are going to remember the lyrics and others are going to remember the beat and melody. I seem to be one of the latter. For me, it’s almost like a film score. The movie is the story, but you feel the emotions before you know what’s going on because of the music.” — Dr. Luke, quoted by Matt Popkin in "Dr. Luke: A Pop Star’s Best Friend," American Songwriter, May / June 2011

"For me songwriting is very…it’s almost like an accident. ‘Oh I accidentally wrote about that.’ I sit down with the urge to write a song and then afterward it turns out being really personal. I get really overwhelmed by how I feel a lot and sometimes – I feel like my body and my brain can’t deal with all the different emotions and I feel like I’m just going to explode." — Jessica Lea Mayfield, quoted by Sean L. Maloney in "Jessica Lea Mayfield: Look At Miss Ohio," American Songwriter, May / June 2011

"All those songs are totally timeless. They’ll always stand up because they came from a real place. They weren’t crafted songs. They were written from the heart.” — Shooter Jennings on his father's songs, quoted by Craig Shelburne in "Waylon Jennings: The Eternal Outlaw," American Songwriter, May / June 2011

"The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!" — anonymous, contributed by Jamie Dalton

"That's the essence of songcraft: making something everyone can understand yet it still sounds new." — Tristan Gaspadarek, quoted by Matt Popkin in "Tristen What's In a Name," American Songwriter, March / April 2011

"The last thinkg I want to do is spend the rest of my life pretending to be 17 or 27. Now it's pretty interesting to me to see what can be said in the point of view of where I am now." — Tristan Gaspadarek, quoted by Matt Popkin in "Tristen What's In a Name, " American Songwriter, March / April 2011

"...songwriting can be cathartic, but then you just keep it private. If you're going to play out and have other people listen to you, then you need to make sure there's some point to what you're saying." — Patterson Hood, quoted by Tim Ghianni in "Drive—By Truckers The Long and Winding Road," American Songwriter, March / April 2011

"Every time I finish a song... most of the time it's in my own head, like this sounds too much like a Townes Van Zandt song, or whoever. I realize there are so many melodies and chord progressions in pop and rock music that are so similar that you can kind of trace it back to other things. Most of the time it's just in your head." — Conor Oberst, quoted by Evan Schlansky in "Bright Eyes, " American Songwriter, March / April 2011

"It's just the more you do it the better you get, or at least that's how I feel in my case. I think it's a combination of confidence and just having done it this long and just learning. I'm always learning. I'm still honing my craft." — Lucinda Williams, quoted by Jewly Hight in "Lucinda Williams Counts Her Blessings, " American Songwriter, March / April 2011

"Songwriting is ... all about intuition — this thing pops into your head for a reason and it's up to you to follow it. It's like there's a spirit, or intuitive network, that comes through all of us, but most people don't take the time to think about it or remember it. These little things pop into our heads — it's just a process of intuition. The initial thought comes in a baby state, and you work on that some more." — Jim James, quoted by Sean L. Maloney in "My Morning Jacket: Southern Ghost Voices, " American Songwriter, March / April 2011

"Great art touches us in a deeply personal way and enables us to share the experience at a universal level." — David Mead, "How to Make the Whole World Sing: 'Bridge Over Troubled Water'," American Songwriter, January / February 2011

"Sometimes an unexpected chord change can be the difference between a good song and a great song." — Gary Talley, "Guitar 101: The Money Chord," American Songwriter, January / February 2011

"'The Times They Are A—Changin'' can be sung by a 23—year—old, a 53—year—old, or a 69—year—old and have a different meaning each time, in a way that most of rock and roll can't." — Sean Wilentz, quoted by Evan Schlansky in "Sean Wilentz On Bob Dylan In America," American Songwriter, January / February 2011

"I had more verses [to Coal Miner's Daughter]. Owen Bradley said, 'Loretta, there's already been one El Paso and we'll never have another one. Get in that room and start taking some of those verses off.' Yeah, I took six verses off." — Loretta Lynn, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Loretta Lynn: Honky Tonk Girl," American Songwriter, January / February 2011

"Sometimes they work, and sometimes they just won't. Sometimes you get hung up on them. When that happens, you just throw it back, and maybe come back to it two or three weeks later." — Loretta Lynn on writing a song in ten minutes, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Loretta Lynn: Honky Tonk Girl," American Songwriter, January / February 2011

"Write about the truth. If you write about the truth, somebody's living that. Not just somebody, there's a lot of people." — Loretta Lynn, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Loretta Lynn: Honky Tonk Girl," American Songwriter, January / February 2011

"Poetry is a solitary process. One does not write poetry for the masses. Poetry is a self—involved, lofty pursuit. Songs are for the people. When I'm writing a song, I imagine performing it. I imagine giving it. It's a different aspect of communication. It's for the people." — Patti Smith, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Patti Smith: Warrior Poet," American Songwriter, January / February 2011

"Often the simplest song is the hardest to write." — Patti Smith, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Patti Smith: Warrior Poet," American Songwriter, January / February 2011

"Songwriting is like working on a jigsaw puzzle, and it doesn't make any sense until you find that last piece. It has to make sense or it doesn't work." — Chrissie Hynde, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Chrissie Hynde: The Great Pretender," American Songwriter, January / February 2011

"Songwriting becomes a conscious attempt to delve into the unconscious. Even those writers who scoff at the concept of a spiritual source for their songs admit that the phenomenon of having them simply arrive feels magical." — Paul Zollo,"American Icons: Songwriters on Songwriting, Part 1," American Songwriter, January / February 2011

"...more often than not, lyrics say more with how they feel than what they really mean..." — Adam Gold,"Behind the Song: 'Stairway to Heaven'," American Songwriter, January / February 2011

"...one can't always be suitably creative when the clock is ticking." — contributed by Stuart Tarbuck

"For poet Dan Beachy—Quick ... inspiration can hit at any time: while researching the 19th century in America, reading Moby Dick for the 10th time, taking a walk or watching his newborn daughter." — Kathryn Mayer, "Poet Dan Beachy—Quick," University of Denver Magazine, Winter 2010

"The poems are part of my attempt to understand being in the world in an honest way." — Dan Beachy—Quick, quoted by Kathryn Mayer in "Poet Dan Beachy—Quick," University of Denver Magazine, Winter 2010

"[Poetry} challenges you. Much of its importance is that it's one of the few places left in culture that makes things difficult—it asks you to think, to perceive and not to take for granted what we think about the world." — Dan Beachy—Quick, quoted by Kathryn Mayer in "Poet Dan Beachy—Quick," University of Denver Magazine, Winter 2010

"[The publication of his first poem] was wonderful ... but it taught me early on that the only thing that really matters is writing the next poem. Publication is best seen as a happy accident." — Dan Beachy—Quick, quoted by Kathryn Mayer in "Poet Dan Beachy—Quick," University of Denver Magazine, Winter 2010

"The world does not know it needs poems any longer, but we believe it does." — Professor Bin Ramke, quoted by Kathryn Mayer in "Poet Dan Beachy—Quick," University of Denver Magazine, Winter 2010

"Yes, I think lyrics are different from poetry, not just in the economy of words, but the feel and rhythm of the words. Poetry can be angular, sharp—edged, weighty, self—obsessed and, well, anything it damn well wants, whereas lyrics are necessarily confined to a smaller framework and, even with a story—song, must live in a smaller space. Sure, poetry has rhythm, bu lyrics should fall out of one's mouth like polished rocks!" — Michael McGarrah, Letters, American Songwriter, Nov / Dec 2010

"With a song, it only takes a couple of minutes to go back to the beginning and try it again to see if it works. The novel freaks me out because, what if you get into the eighth chapter and think, ‘Let’s go to the top and see if this works again? It’s going to take me three weeks.’ I’m in awe of that." — Ben Folds, quoted by Evan Schlansky in "Ben Folds & Nick Hornby: A Q&A With Ben Folds," American Songwriter, Nov / Dec 2010

"... I don’t enjoy [songwriting], because it’s not rewarding to have this really fantastic feeling in your chest, a chill and inspiration, and just to watch it painfully slip through your fingers as you work through the reality of it. Most songs start as a very pure feeling, and the whole thing you want to do is get that feeling across to other people. And then they’re misunderstood as well, and you have all that to navigate, while you are writing it. You’re throwing everything against a wall, trying to find what it is that’s making you feel that way. And I don’t find that very damn fun at all. I think it’s a drag. There are worse things to do: I used to wait tables, I mowed lawns. What I love is playing the songs once they’re not mine anymore. An audience has them, and I don’t even remember writing them at that point. ..." — Ben Folds, quoted by Evan Schlansky in "Ben Folds & Nick Hornby: A Q&A With Ben Folds," American Songwriter, Nov / Dec 2010

"When I start on a song, sometimes at the beginning it seems just like an impossible task… It all looks unpromising. And I make myself play one note. And I get myself going and then momentum builds and I really get into the joy of it… You know I’m like a kid with a jigsaw puzzle, a glittering magical jigsaw puzzle.
"It always feels like the first time to me. It’s sort of like warming up for tennis or vocalizing. I have to get that thing going… It then becomes very rewarding for me as I approach the end of it and I keep fitting things in, and it feels good to me. It’s just the best feeling I have ever had. Sometimes it goes off the rails and I can feel that I’m losing it. I’m like a kid with my skateboard skidding out in front of me, and there’s nothing much I can do about it." — Jimmy Webb, quoted by Paul Zollo in "American Icons: Jimmy Webb," American Songwriter, Nov / Dec 2010

"All the fun's
in how you say a thing."
— Robert Frost

"The ending should be short and sweet. ... Trust your audience to understand your message and don't try and beat it into them. Stop yourself from prolonging the story because you're having such a good time." — Dan Kedding, "The ENDLESS Tale," Sing Out, Summer 2010

"I stopped going to parties and writing [songs] in my hotel room at night. It frees up a lot of time – it’s amazing! You wake up, you feel better, and you’ve got more time in the day!" — Brandon Flowers, quoted by Nisha Gopalan in "Brandon Flowers: The Killer Inside," American Songwriter Sept / Oct 2010 (note: He used the time in the day to write songs for his solo album, Flamingo.)

"For this album, for the first time ever, I decided to write the bulk of the songs on the piano. I’m not a very good piano player, and so I thought it would be an interesting exercise, to write songs on an instrument that absolved me of any obligation to do something interesting with my hands. I wanted to focus on the bones of the songs – the melodies and chords. Sometimes, with the harp, I can get carried away thinking about instrumental arrangements before the songs even know what they are, which ends up producing sort of frenetic, abstract work, with the fussiness of a premature infancy. I wanted these songs to be measured and solid, pitched low and heavy. Then, once they were sketched out, I switched back to the harp, to fill in the instrumental details.." — Joanna Newsom, quoted by Evan Schlansky in "Joanna Newsom: The Siren’s Song" American Songwriter Sept / Oct 2010

"Lonnie says it doesn't take long to write a song if you're stricken with a severe case of the Tennysons. He wasn't necessarily talking about a chart—climber." — Dan Jenkins, Baja Oklahoma

"When you play the right note and sing the right melody and the right lyric and the right time, it connects with people in a powerful way. It’s magical.” — Jonathan Tyler, quoted by Brian T. Atkinson in "On the Horizon: Jonathan Tyler & the Northern Lights," American Songwriter May / June 2010

"Songwriters that work in particular genres get strong in some areas and neglect others. It’s kind of funny how we tend to regard 'our' genre as being the one that is 'legitimate.' We tend to ignore or disrespect other genres. And yet there are no pure song genres in our culture. We are an eclectic culture. Our music is filled with cross—fertilization. Rock music, for example, bears hefty influences from jazz, country, gospel, pop, classical, you name it. Meanwhile, pop, rock, gospel, modern and contemporary classical, etc., all bear influences from music that came before, as well as music that came later." — Michael Kosser, "Street Smarts: Why Lyrics and Melody Matter, " American Songwriter May / June 2010

"In Nashville, there is a historic tendency to work the lyric to death while settling for music that works. In pop or rock, it can be the other way around." — Michael Kosser, "Street Smarts: Why Lyrics and Melody Matter, " American Songwriter May / June 2010

“I’ve always known that I was a gifted person. ... I’ve always felt like I would be punished, severely, if I didn’t continue to make use of that gift. It’s very important that you don’t let the muscle get flabby. It’s really hard, as an old human being, to press as much weight as you pressed when you were a kid.” — Merle Haggard, quoted by Peter Cooper in "Merle Haggard: As He Is," American Songwriter May / June 2010

"I think it was Tommy who told me, ‘When your song is called ‘XYZ’ or whatever, every line has got to make sense against your title.’ He showed me little methods of proving to yourself whether the line belongs, and ways of finding out whether you were able to get more out of a line if you tried.” — Merle Haggard, quoted by Peter Cooper in "Merle Haggard: As He Is," American Songwriter May / June 2010

“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, quoted by Peter Cooper in "Merle Haggard: As He Is," American Songwriter May / June 2010

"...she knew the intensity of adolescence, and knew no cure for it except growing up. And then one has age and experience, and mourns the loss of intensity. Maybe it's why musicians and mathmaticians are said to peak young—poetry needs the fire of an unbounded universe." — Sara Paretsky, "Bleeding Kansas"

"When I write a song today, basically it goes on the stage tomorrow. That's the way it works. You cannont interrupt your consciousness; it all comes from the subconscious, it can happen anywhere. It could be in a telephone booth." — Richie Havens quoted by John Kruth in "Richie Havens' Mixed Bag: From the Basket Houses to Yasgur's Farm and 40 Years Hence," Sing Out! Autumn '09 / Winter '10

"All I know is when I start getting serious about songwriting... it's like a playground. All responsibilities slip away and you're with your essence. There can be delight there and self—discovery. You can dance there... I think of it as my serious playground." — Laura Nyro, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Laura Nyro: An Angel in the Dark," American Songwriter, March / April 2010

"I don’t know exactly where the ideas come from, but when I get into a songwriting mode and it’s coming along, it’s like you’re on the front end of a boat and you’re going through the water, and the breeze is blowing through your hair and the water’s smooth, and you’re going out to sea. I love that feeling.
"...I've sat in a chair for three hours and nothing happened, and then all of a sudden something starts happening." — Robert Earl Keen, quoted by Matt Fink in "Legends: Robert Earl Keen," American Songwrwiter, Jan / Feb 2010

"I think I have to work to write a happy song. I write them carefully; they’re simple and they’re about when it’s fun to walk down the street. You know? Because that’s the best thing about when you’re happy. It’s just one little thing that makes you happy, and you’re making friends. The kind of thing I can do is capture this moment." — Rickie Lee Jones, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Legends: Rickie Lee Jones," American Songwriter, Jan / Feb 2010

"I think the more the listener can contribute to the song, the better; the more they become part of the song, and they fill in the blanks. Rather than tell them everything, you save your details for things that exist. Like what color the ashtray is. How far away the doorway was. So when you’re talking about intangible things like emotions, the listener can fill in the blanks and you just draw the foundation." — John Prine, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Legends: John Prine," American Songwriter, Jan / Feb 2010

"It’s very elusive. You gotta learn patience. I know that I’m basically a very lazy person. As much as I enjoy writing, I would rather do anything in the world but sit down and write. But once I get into it, I’m into it. I mean, if you said, “Let’s go get a hot dog first,” I would always go for the hot dog. I know that about myself. So I have to balance out my patience waiting for the right thing to come along with my laziness, knowing I’m trying to avoid working.
" Some of the songs come so fully, it’s like they are pre—packaged. There have been a couple that came in the middle of the night. And I thought, jeez, I’ll never forget that. And went back to sleep, and it was gone. You’ll hear something years later that another songwriter that you respect writes, and you go, jeez, I think that was the remnants of that song that got sent to me." — John Prine, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Legends: John Prine," American Songwriter, Jan / Feb 2010

"I edit as I go. Especially when I go to commit it to paper. I prefer a typewriter even to a computer. I don’t like it. There’s no noise on the computer. I like a typewriter because I am such a slow typist. I edit as I am committing it to paper. I like to see the words before me and I go, “Yeah, that’s it.” They appear before me and they fit. I don’t usually take large parts out. If I get stuck early in a song, I take it as a sign that I might be writing the chorus and don’t know it. Sometimes,you gotta step back a little bit and take a look at what you’re doing." — John Prine, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Legends: John Prine," American Songwriter, Jan / Feb 2010

"I think you can refine what you do, and become more consistent. And you write better songs that have a better shape and a better feeling. You evolve into and out of things, and go through stages, but, ultimately, you do improve." — Richard Thompson, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Legends: Richard Thompson," American Songwriter, Jan / Feb 2010

"Every song really tells a story. Some are more fleshed out than others. Some are more linear than others. But most pop songs, apart from pretty basic dance music, is telling some kind of a story—usually a love story, sometimes a political story. In modern songwriting there is a lot of cinematic technique, where you jump into the middle of action. You might be writing in first person through the eyes of the protagonist. It’s a little cinematic scene, and you do hard cuts. And some more is left to the imagination. I do a lot of that in addition to the narrative songs, and I enjoy both. I’m surprised by how popular the ballads are, the story songs. So in a sense, I’m reacting to what the audience would like." — Richard Thompson, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Legends: Richard Thompson," American Songwriter, Jan / Feb 2010

"Well, you wouldn’t think that that would be a way that people still enjoy receiving a story. In the 16th century, before the gramophone and the cinema, the way people heard news was not from newspapers; it was from ballads. You’d hear about the local murder and it would be a ballad.
" Today, I’m surprised that people have the attention span to sit through a long song. I’m glad they do. I’m rewarded to know that this process, which goes back thousands of years, still works in the age of distractions and so many ways of mediating information." — Richard Thompson, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Legends: Richard Thompson," American Songwriter, Jan / Feb 2010

"I think it’s absolutely possible to write a song and go somewhere where no one’s been before, uncharted territory. In terms of content, I see limitations where there should be none. I know there are things I wouldn’t write about, but that shouldn’t be the case. You should be able to make a song out of anything, out of any situation." — Richard Thompson, quoted by Paul Zollo in "Legends: Richard Thompson," American Songwriter, Jan / Feb 2010

"Asked what these experiences taught them, both men said in unison, 'Nobody knows!'—meaning that nobody can predict what will become a hit, and they related the story of their friends Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen, who were told by the Paramount folks that 'That Old Black Magic' was too long and, therefore, worthless. 'It had a 64—bar melody,' [Jay] Livingston explained, whereas most tunes were usually half that length or less. 'But they were big enough to say, We’re gonna do it anyway.' [Ray] Evans, ever the wordsmith, summed it up: 'So never give up. Nobody knows.'” — Paul Zollo, American Icons: Livingston and Evans, American Songwriter, Jan / Feb 2010

"[Non—performing songwriters] climb the mountain the first time, take their successes in stride, and when they tumble down the mountain, they just consider the tumble part of their profession and don’t even waste time mourning their slump. They continue to write, make new connections, and move forward toward a new round of success." — Michael Kosser, "STREET SMARTS: Toughness Trumps Talent," American Songwriter, Nov / Dec 2009

"The healing power of music is vast. Music therapy is in its infancy in Western psychology. If we knew more, we'd be able to do amazing things, and maybe even make permanent changes in the brain's mysterious workings. With a simple song and four chords, you might be able to do something useful, even life—changing. With all the songs you know, you might be a virtual, veritable medicine chest for the right person." — Gary Talley, "Guitar 101: Hear Those Jingle Bells?," American Songwriter, Nov / Dec 2009

"Writin’ songs is like a mystery. The most difficult thing to do is have a good idea. If you have a decent idea, the songs are the easy part. Actually having something to say is the hard part. If you get an idea for a song, then it pulls you along. There are just some ideas that you get that are really hard to edit out; it’s hard to stop thinking about some bad ideas. So you just finish it and you end up putting it on a record." Lyle Lovett, quoted by Lynne Margolis in "Lyle Lovett: It Just Comes Natural," American Songwriter, Nov / Dec 2009

"Beyond hoping that someone will like one of my songs, I don’t think about how a song will be received. I just hope that, when somebody hears one of my songs, they’ll want to hear it again. I don’t have an impact or an effect in mind. I really just try to write something that makes sense for me, that seems true. For me, songs are sort of sacred ground, because it’s a place where you can actually tell the truth. You don’t have to be diplomatic. I think the point of a song is to just say something that’s true, or that expresses an idea that reflects something that’s true, whether it’s a truth about human nature or about the way people bullshit one another. A song doesn’t have to be serious to be true… but to me, that’s what a song is. And if I can get that right for me, then it’s worth writing. …You’re asking people for their time and attention, and it’s a chance to tell somebody what you think, or to share a joke. I just always hope that whatever’s in the song is worth demanding somebody’s time [for]." Lyle Lovett, quoted by Lynne Margolis in "Lyle Lovett: It Just Comes Natural," American Songwriter, Nov / Dec 2009

"You know, it's a pretty mysterious thing still, why you start the songs you start, and the specific flavor of them, the nature of them. I don't know about other writers, but, for me, it's still somewhat out of my control. It's not really a logical process." — Gillian Welch, quoted by Jewly Hight in Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings / Welcome to the Machine / Modern Sounds in Their Partnership," American Songwriter, Nov / Dec 2009

"Hoagy Carmichael, who usually wrote his own words as well as music, had composed an extended melody that was beautiful, but which was a challenge for him to write words for. [Mitchell] Parish heard ['Stardust'] and was unimpressed. 'I didn’t like it,' he said with a sly smile. 'When I heard it, it was a swing tune, but I didn’t write it that way. It sounded just like another swing tune. It was nothing like the way it is now, which is sweet, mellow and romantic.' Victor Young did an orchestral arrangement of the song as a ballad, as opposed to a rhythmic swing melody, and Parish heard it then as if he’d heard it for the first time. 'It was altogether a different mood, a different feeling. Really beautiful. And it became what it became.'" — Paul Zollo, "American Icons: Mitchell Parish," American Songwriter, Nov / Dec 2009

"Asked if he knew how important [Stardust] would be, [Mitchell Parish] said he did have a gut feeling that this was a momentous one. But had no idea it would become a standard. 'You don’t sit down and write a standard,' he explained. 'A standard evolves.'” — Paul Zollo, "American Icons: Mitchell Parish," American Songwriter, Nov / Dec 2009

"[Mitchell] Parish understood that a great lyric often emerged over time, and cannot be forced or contrived. 'If I had to labor over a lyric too long,' he said, 'if it became an arduous task where I sweated and toiled and struggled, I would drop it. And not because I shunned arduous work, but because I felt it wouldn’t be fair to the composer. The lyric would show its toil and sweat and that wouldn’t be good for the song. The sturm und drang would be evident.'” — Paul Zollo, "American Icons: Mitchell Parish," American Songwriter, Nov / Dec 2009

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