Best Songwriting Words

652 Songwriting quotes by 379 unique authors

You can't write a song out of thin air. You have to feel and know what you are writing about. ... Talent is only a… — Irving Berlin
My sole inspiration is a telephone call from a director. ... (when asked who wrote 'Some Enchanted Evening') Rodgers and Hammerstein, if you can imagine… — Cole Porter
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean the bastards aren't out to get you. ... Painters of paintings, writers of books, never could tell the half.… — Lorenz Hart
If anybody was Mr. Jazz it was Louis Armstrong. He was the epitome of jazz and always will be. He is what I call an… — Duke Ellington
I don't write songs, songs write me. ... Writing a song can be agony or ecstasy. It can take half an hour or half a… — Sammy Cahn
When I wrote the song, I had the sea near Bombay in mind. We stayed at a hotel by the sea, and the fishermen come… — Ray Davies
It was my 16th birthday-my mom and dad gave me my Goya classical guitar that day. I sat down, wrote this song, and I just… — Stevie Nicks
You can't ask me to explain the lyrics because I won't do it...I always believed that I have something important to say and I said… — Lou Reed
I have a weird life because I live on songwriting royalties, which are a strange income. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn't. ... I want… — Joe Strummer
But there's a thin line between songwriting and arranging. ... Recording at home enables one to eliminate the demo stage, and the presentation stage in… — Warren Zevon
I had this talent for these stupid little teenage songs. I just couldn't get anyone to sing my songs, so I had to sing my… — Paul Anka
I always try to write a song, I never just want to write a record. Originally I was not writing songs for myself. ....And I… — Smokey Robinson
I wake up from dreams and go, 'Wow, put this down on paper.' The whole thing is strange. You hear the words, everything is right… — Michael Jackson
People are always asking me what my lyrics mean. Does it mean this, does it mean that, that's all anybody wants to know. F**k them,… — Freddie Mercury
There are no limitations with a song. To me a song is a little piece of art. It can be whatever you like it to… — Laura Nyro
I consider myself to be an inept pianist, a bad singer, and a merely competent songwriter. ... I'm probably writing music now for the same… — Billy Joel
It would be nice to abandon the verse-chorus-bridge structure completely, and make it so none of these things are definable. ... Make up new names… — Robbie Robertson
My vocation is more in composition really than anything else-building up harmonies using the guitar, orchestrating the guitar like an army, a guitar army. ...… — Jimmy Page
Everybody wants to write a hit song, but in Nashville people want to write the best song, which was my original intention as a singer/songwriter.… — Melissa Manchester
I learned how music works dealing with Jermaine Dupri, and I learned how image works dealing with Puff Daddy. ... Singing is an acting role… — Usher
What I do now is all my dad's fault, because he bought me a guitar as a boy, for no apparent reason. ... I wrote… — Rod Stewart
I knew I had to have a hit. I would get no more chances. Analyzing what they had in common I discovered they had many… — Neil Sedaka
All the songs that were written for that album are just all our first sophomore songs. So they're all from real life. Very sweet and… — Cat Stevens
I like myself better when I'm writing regularly. ... I was influenced a lot by those around me-there was a lot of singing that went… — Willie Nelson
I think a lot of my interest in history now isn't so much in places and names and texts and public figures, but more in… — Sufjan Stevens

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Best Songwriting Words

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