Dar Williams Quotes & Sayings

Writing 'February' made me realize that breaking form is a way of letting the song be human. — Dar Williams

But if you're looking to be spooked by really tall trees then you've got to go to Washington State. — Dar Williams

I try to be careful not to do single concerts where I fly out, do my show, turn around and go home. — Dar Williams

and now I laugh at how the world changed me, and I think life chose me . . . after all. — Dar Williams

If you're looking for can-do, earthy-crunchy attitude then you've got to go to Wisconsin. — Dar Williams

There's the wind And the rain And the mercy of the fallen Who say, "Hey, it's not my place To know what's right" There's the weak And the strong And the many stars that guide us We have some of them inside us — Dar Williams

Being told that you are good at banter is like being told that you are a good person. — Dar Williams

If you're lucky you find something that reflects you, Helps you feel your life, protects you, Cradles you and connects you to everything. — Dar Williams

God looks like a guidance counselor, God's got that smile. God says, 'How could this be? That's really odd I guess I'll have to check my records, silly me, you know, I'm only God.' — Dar Williams

Go ahead, push your luck, find out how much love the world can hold. — Dar Williams

And where does magic come from? I think that magic's in the learning. — Dar Williams

So I'll keep you wondering what time I'm arriving
And you'll drive me crazy with your backseat driving
And I'll talk in my sleep and you'll steal all the covers
We'll argue it out and we'll call ourselves lovers
And I'll stay in my body and you'll stay in your own
'Cause we know that we're born and we're dying alone.
So we turn out the light while the sirens are screaming
And we kiss for the waking, and then join the dreaming. — Dar Williams

A song versus an album is not like a scene versus a play. — Dar Williams

Now when I was fifteen, oh I knew it was over
The road to enchantment was not mine to take
Cause lower calf, upper arm should be half what they are
I was breaking the laws that the signmakers made.

And all I could eat was the poisonous apple
And that's not a story I was meant to survive
I was all out of choices, but the woman of voices

She turned round the corner with music around her,
She gave me the language that keeps me alive — Dar Williams

Guiding the ship takes more the your skill. It is the compass inside as the strength of your will. — Dar Williams

Sixties folk rock was my original muse and the folk audience-people who listen to music off the beaten track-fostered my career. I definitely don't want to abandon the genre but I also need to make sure I'm Dar Williams first. — Dar Williams

I fear that to fall in love with you is to fall from a great and gruesome height. — Dar Williams

"Is it how she moves, or how she looks?" I say it's loneliness suspended to our own like grappling hooks, And as long as she's got noise, she's fine. But I could teach her how I learned to dance when the music's ended. — Dar Williams

And I'll act like I have faith, and like that faith never ends, but I really just have friends. — Dar Williams

Sometimes life sends us lessons in ridiculous packaging. — Dar Williams

The very best thing you can do is to try to write a song that has some sort of impact. — Dar Williams

I think music is another language. — Dar Williams

Arizona is really cool but I couldn't stay there for too long. — Dar Williams

I have a sordid past. — Dar Williams

The very best thing for music would be to live next door to a person who listens to loud music so you could mishear music everyday and mutate it to your own means. — Dar Williams

How I long to fall just a little bit, to dance out of the lines and stray from the light. — Dar Williams

And the ones that know you so well are the ones that can swallow you whole. — Dar Williams

I watch people throw aluminum cans in the trash, and I think of all the stories I've heard about the over-mining of aluminum, the erosion that happens, and the trees that fall down. — Dar Williams

I really value people besides parents who nurture kids. — Dar Williams

If a war has to happen, a war has to happen. — Dar Williams

But where do we come up with this notion of a woman in which the less space you take up, the more you're worth? — Dar Williams

Every time you opt in to kindness Make one connection, used to divide us It echoes all over the world — Dar Williams

All the things you treasure most will be the hardest won
I will watch you struggle long before the answers come
But I won't make it harder, I'll be there to cheer you on
I'll shine the light that guides you down the road you're walking on — Dar Williams

The summer ends and we wonder who we are And there you go, my friends, with your boxes in your car And today I passed the high school, the river, the maple tree I passed the farms that made it Through the last days of the century And I knew that I was going to learn again Again, in this less hazy light I saw the fields beyond the fields The fields beyond the field — Dar Williams

In the laughing times we know that we are lucky, and in the quiet times we know that we are blessed. And we will not be alone. — Dar Williams

Every day has one morning. — Dar Williams

The funny thing is musicians often love to go to see visual art because you've got all these pictures to turn into metaphors. — Dar Williams

Sometimes I see myself fine, sometimes I need a witness. And I like the whole truth, but there are nights I only need forgiveness. — Dar Williams

And I will write this down / And then I will not be alone again — Dar Williams

I'm becoming a professional nomad and enjoying that whole part of my life. — Dar Williams

And you bring your words,
But you're just like them,
You're unprepared
'Cause you don't know the terrain — Dar Williams

We're all in a soup of trying to live by words, and trying to live by poetry. It's both humbling, and really flattering to know that my words are part of all that. — Dar Williams

But I benefit from the taxes I pay because I know how to access the benefits of the taxes. — Dar Williams

And if I had a camera
Showing all the light we give
And showing where the light extends
I'd give it to my friends — Dar Williams

The only word for love is everybody's name. — Dar Williams

You always have to wrestle with chaos. — Dar Williams

Sometimes life gives us lessons sent in ridiculous packaging. — Dar Williams

They preach that I should save the world. They pray that I won't do a better job of it. — Dar Williams

Everyone has to decide how they're going to appear in their lives, how they're going to put themselves out there to the world. — Dar Williams

There's a marketing scheme that tells you that pregnancy and child rearing will make you into a moron, that your kids are only happy when you're buying them stuff. It's hard being a parent, but I laugh a lot and smile a lot and really enjoy it. The ratio of laughter to sadness is higher. There's part of me that wants to broadcast that. Parenting only affirmed what I already cared about, and that's good — Dar Williams

The first concert I saw was Cheryl Wheeler. — Dar Williams

There's always people who came 600 miles to hear the song you didn't play. — Dar Williams

Therapy was the biggest romance of my life. — Dar Williams

But social justice and the environment are very tied together in my head. — Dar Williams

Milwaukee one of my favorite cites; I think Milwaukee is #1. — Dar Williams

The light that stopped the night felt like forgiveness. — Dar Williams

You'll almost encounter a superstition amongst musicians, people sort of go through strange rituals, what they need to do to write a song. — Dar Williams

I was raised by parents who really admired the religious leaders of the left, as many 60s and 70s liberals did. — Dar Williams