Songwriting Quotes · Page 5

You know, a song is like a kid. You bring it up. And sometimes something you thought was going to be fantastic,…

— Phil Collins

Much of songwriting is simply a mystery.

— Paul Simon

It's really hard to learn songwriting from a book.

— Olivia Rodrigo

For me, it's good to have those dissimilar modes of songwriting sit side-by-side on a record, because they yield such different results.

— David Grubbs

I think what I wanted to do was meet someone who knew more than me about songwriting structure and progressions and middle…

— Bat for Lashes

Probably most successful songwriters have an innate songwriting ability.

— Barry Mann

I have always written poetry but I have never applied it to songwriting.

— Janine Turner

Unlike some of my peers, I haven't really hit a writer's block. When I hit a block I just paint, which is…

— Joni Mitchell

When I get all focused on songwriting, I get into all the marketing and promotion that we do to make it happen.…

— Ronnie Dunn

People are always asking me what my lyrics mean. Does it mean this, does it mean that, that's all anybody wants to…

— Freddie Mercury

I think the nature of songwriters is that they are philosophers, and philosophers have a bent towards poetry and songwriting, so I…

— Tom T. Hall

I always saw songwriting as the top of the heap. No matter what else you were going to do creatively - and…

— Jakob Dylan

I compare songwriting to childbirth. How many kids can you have before your uterus explodes?

— Billy Joel

Wherever inspiration comes from, it's like I'll hear a melody and chords, almost a rough structure of the whole thing [song]. I'll…

— Chris Wyse

You know, it's a pretty mysterious thing still, why you start the songs you start, and the specific flavor of them, the…

— Gillian Welch

Ideas are floating like fish. Desire for an idea is like a bait on a hook. If you desire an idea, it…

— David Lynch

Songwriting is the other weight on the opposite side of the scale from touring. They balance me out creatively.

— Tommy Shaw

I didn't think anything we did was spectacular. I remember we thought, Let's just write some scary music.

— Ozzy Osbourne

Glen Campbell told me, 'Stay out of the way of a good song.' I think it's true. If a song's good, don't…

— Chris Isaak

My passion is more in songwriting than ... in being a star.

— Shania Twain

It just seems like musicians want to sell a few records and put out a perfume line, and I think it's so…

— Moby

Writing songs is like capturing birds without killing them. Sometimes you end up with nothing but a mouthful of feathers.

— Tom Waits

I think it's probably, musically, probably the most sophisticated. ("The Woman in White") There's a lot more daring harmony in it than…

— Andrew Lloyd Webber

I sing and play guitar, but songwriting is how I pay my rent. And so I didn't really need a lot of…

— J. J. Cale

I write the vocals last, because I wanted to invent the music first and push the music to the level that I…

— Axl Rose