Attention Quote by Dan Bern

Lyrics have got to be simple and catchy. A hook is more important than an overall concept or story.

— Galcher Lustwerk

What I envy about musicians is, they have this more direct relationship with the audience. They don't have to go through words. Sure, the…

— Jeff VanderMeer

You get to thinking that because you've written 50 or 100 songs, you think maybe you know how to do it. But when they're…

— John Prine

The stuff that I make and the things that I talk about, you have to listen, so if the beat is doing too much,…

— Lupe Fiasco

I think a lot of my songs are very silly and very stupid, written to entertain people, but in the end, I always come…

— Jens Lekman

In the early days, Porter Wagoner would not exactly scold me, but he's say, 'You're writing too many damn verses. You're makin' these songs…

— Dolly Parton

But especially in America when you've got four people in a room and they do a songwriting day, well one of them might literally…

— Tony Hadley

You have to follow every melodic line, every emotional idea, or you don't get your money's worth.

— Kristin Hersh

Sometimes people come up and say, "You have this line in this song and it meant a lot to me." You don't always remember…

— Craig Finn

The thrill of writing songs for other people, when you get that right, that person's soul speaks to that song; you've done them a…

— LP

A lot of times when songwriters get together and write a song... somebody will come in with a hook and a lot of times…

— Alan Jackson

The writers that I aspire to, like Joni Mitchell and Randy Newman, they'll tell you that the work gets harder, not easier. And they…

— Christopher Cross