Songwriting is such a mysterious thing. Its a magical…

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

— James Taylor

Songwriting is a very mysterious process. It feels like creating something from nothing. It's something I don't feel like I really control.

— Tracy Chapman

Songwriting is a mysterious art. When I sit down to write a song, the end result should be mysterious and have this dark quality.

— Martin Gore

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…

— Gillian Welch

Just remember that William Blake wasn't even published in his lifetime. Ya gotta keep creating.

— Kris Kristofferson

I love songwriting, and rap is part of my songwriting, but I'm not a rapper.

— Amber Liu

I sit down with a guitar player and if there's a situation I feel strongly about, or a guy that I've been thinking about…

— Avril Lavigne

You can't manufacture inspiration, so a lot of it is still a waiting game for me. There's still a lot of mystery to songwriting.…

— Conor Oberst

Songwriters might write cynical, world-wise lyrics and constantly talk about money, but most of us are downright naive when it comes to business.

— Willie Nelson

Songwriting is like editing. You write down all this stuff - all this bad, stupid stuff - and then you have to get rid…

— Juliana Hatfield

I got signed with the songwriting deal when I was sixteen and they were really great - my publishers, who to this day are…

— Lights

You wind up creating from silence, like painting a picture on a blank canvas that could bring tears to somebody's eyes. As songwriters, our…

— Rodney Atkins

Most of us have the residue of thousands of songs in our ears, that if you end up songwriting, I think you're mostly smoking…

— Tom Waits

Teasing out the way the world might look through another's eyes is what makes the creative process so fascinating and enjoyable.

— Stephen L. Carter

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…

— Conor Oberst