Mary Chapin Carpenter Quotes & Sayings

A dreamer born is a hero bred ... — Mary Chapin Carpenter

Tonight, the moon came out, it was nearly full.
Way down here on earth, I could feel it's pull.
The weight of gravity or just the lure of life,
Made me want to leave my only home tonight.
I'm just wondering how we know where we belong
Is it in the arc of the moon, leaving shadows on the lawn
In the path of fireflies and a single bird at dawn
Singing in between here and gone — Mary Chapin Carpenter

You've gotta know happy. You've gotta know sad. 'Cause you're gonna know lonely and you're gonna know sad — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I know some artists who come out of country music and the three sessions a day work ethic where you walk in, and you're told you play this note, this note, and this note, and you don't vary it. I know that works great for some people. It wouldn't work for me. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

Life is never a straight line - it's peaks and valleys. Why would you want to be the same person every day of your life? — Mary Chapin Carpenter

God forgives somehow we have yet to learn the same. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I feel like they're different creatures, live and in the studio, but that's what makes it so interesting to me. If they didn't have any different shadings or colors, you might as well be a hologram or something. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

Fool you once, you are forgiven. Fool you twice, you're just a fool. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I feel that it's nothing if not an incredible privilege to be able to get up on stage and play for people, and I don't ever take it for granted. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I want to try it again and again, and a lot of times my fellow musicians have to hold me back and say, "Nah, I think we got it." — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I feel like politics have always informed what I do. If you know anything about my music, you know I've never been shy about stating how I vote. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

Dreamland is a book, but it's my song in book form. It's translated itself into a different medium. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

Gather up your telegrams
Your faded pictures, best laid plans
Books and postcards, 45's
Every sunset in the sky
Carry with you maps and string, flashlights
Friends who make you sing
And stars to help you find your place
Music, hope and amazing grace
Maybe what we leave
Is nothing but a tangled little mystery
Maybe what we take
Is nothing that has ever had a name — Mary Chapin Carpenter

It's a marvelous feeling when someone says 'I want to do this song of yours' because they've connected to it. That's what I'm after. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

20-some years ago, I'd have a big old radio with a tape deck, and I'd hit record and try to get something down on the tape, but nowadays, I can use my handy little smart-phone; I sing into the app for voice memo. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

About age ten, we moved from the place where I was born, moved overseas. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I went to college and I never allowed myself to think for an instant that I would have this chance to do this. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

Everything changes in every genre, whether it's pop, rock or country. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I was a liberal arts junkie and I figured, well, I'll go work for somebody somewhere. All I knew was that I was going to have to come home and figure it out. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

Every sleepy boy and girl in every bed around the world- Can hear the stars up in the sky whispering a lullaby — Mary Chapin Carpenter

When I think of the artists I admire and seek out musically. It's because I'm curious about where they're going to go the next time they have a chance to put a record out. It's not about where I find them on the radio dial, or how many records they're selling. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I was really young, but I can't say that I wrote much of anything. I liked to scribble; I thought of it as that. But I was playing guitar and ukulele when I was in second grade. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

As far as feeling freedom in my career now versus five years ago ... I think if I feel any more free it's simply because of the experiences that I've had, and the wisdom I've accumulated from that time. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

In this world, you've a soul for a compass and a heart for a pair of wings. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I certainly felt the desire to reach as many people as I could; I wanted to make the most of this opportunity, sure. But I wouldn't call it pressure the way we're thinking of it now. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I don't think you need to dumb down to a child, you merely have to be clear, you know? — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I think on a stage in front of thousands of people is a wildly invigorating and amazing experience, and it requires a certain skill set; then being in the studio, and being curled up in the fetal position under the piano, that requires another skill set. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

Think I'll flip a coin, I'm a winner either way Mmmmmm, I feel lucky today — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I woke to find every window open I woke to find the heavy door ajar And I walked outside and stood upon the hilltop And gazed once more on a bright morning star I walked outside and every bird was singing As I found again my bright morning star — Mary Chapin Carpenter

The light of the moon is all we've got to go on ... — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I found Elvis on the Internet, I went camping with a young cadet, he showed me his bayonet. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

So I came home and I had a resume and everything, but the only job experience I had was just playing in bars and clubs on my summers off. So, I was temping and stuff during the day and playing music at night. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

Carry with you maps and string, flashlights, friends who make you sing, and stars to help you find your place, music, hope, and amazing grace. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I kept thinking, I went to college and I have to get a real job. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

In the late 80s, artists could be signed to labels and be nurtured. It wasn't, "We're going to give you one shot, and if you don't measure up, you're gone". — Mary Chapin Carpenter

When I was young I spoke like a child I saw with a child's eyes And an open door was to a girl Like the stars are to the sky It's funny how the world lives up to All your expectations With adventures for the stout of heart And the lure of the open spaces There's two lanes running down this road And whichever side you're on Accounts for where you want to go Or what you're running from Back when darkness overtook me On a blind man's curve I relied upon the moon and Saint Christopher — Mary Chapin Carpenter

Where do shadows fall when there is only light. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

Was it a light only she could see? A gypsy's spell? A mystery? — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I love to write songs and sing them, and I didn't really know much more than that. Somehow it's gotten to the point where a friend can say, "It's very you," and that made me feel good. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

We all have two lives. The one we are given and the one we create. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

Sometimes you get there in spite of the route Losing track of your life and what it's about The road seems to know when to straighten right out ... I could wonder if all of it led me to you I could show you the arrows and circles I drew I didn't have a map, it's the best I could do On the fly and on the run — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I think that every new record is a chance to ... I think what it is for me is my heart and soul at that moment in time ... I've always felt that just being able to make a record is a privilege. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I've crossed lines of word and wire and both have cut me deep. I've been frozen out and I've been on fire, and the tears are mine to weep. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I take my chances. I can't cling to remorse or regret. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

You know, that single girl life and that sense of isolation - that doesn't leave you just like that. And that's what that song is about. I remember that, and that is imprinted on me, that sense. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I'm a liberal arts junkie. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

It's a pretty frantic world that we live in. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

So I think that if I do feel more freedom right now in my career, it's not so much because I have less at stake but more a sense that I've learned more. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

You know, I didn't have enough money to quit my day job ... the myth of the major label deal. Nowadays, you have a tour bus and a stylist and all this stuff. But back then, no way. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

The bedrock thing of country music is, it's about storytelling. I feel like I was able to find a niche because I connected to that in some way. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

The joy of being in the studio is having people being utterly free to throw out their ideas. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I think topical songwriting is a real gift, and it's hard not to be pedantic and show up with the sledgehammer message. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

It's like the code of living by yourself. People who are single know what I'm talking about. You eat standing up, reading the paper. Or you say to yourself, this isn't even cutting it, I'm taking a TV dinner and I'm getting in bed here. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

It seemed inevitable to try to address my feelings about everything that had happened. To a certain degree, it felt cathartic, but it's less cathartic to me than it is illuminating and helping me navigate my own feelings. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

We've got two lives -- one we're given and the other one we make. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I don't remember a voice
On a dark, lonesome road
When I started this journey so long ago
I was only just trying to outrun the noise
There was never a question of having a choice — Mary Chapin Carpenter

Some people say that you should not tempt fate and for them I cannot disagree, but I never learned anything from playing it safe. I say fate should not tempt me. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

When I started out, it was this sense of, "Let's put out a record and see what happens and see where you go and see how you feel and where we can take it." That was a very different world back then. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I don't really remember my folks singing to us, but they read to us. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I like to feel that every day or most days, I do a little bit of writing. I am a creature of habit in terms of the way I live. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

Emmy Lou Harris introduced me to the work of the Vietnam Veterans of America foundation and the Campaign for a Land Mine Free World. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

I've never ... when I was having songs on the airwaves, and that sort of thing, I never felt a sense of pressure anywhere except from myself, to do things the way I wanted to do them; to feel authentic; to feel like I was presenting my true self to the world. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

As far as politically how country music goes, it's true that it's regarded from a distance as a genre of music that at different times, the more right elements of the political spectrum have claimed for their own. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

There's two lanes running down this road which ever side your on, accounts for where you want to go or what you're running from. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

There's timing. And then there's also certain people at the record company who worked incredibly hard and were incredibly enthusiastic about what I was doing. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

And I can tell by the way you're searching
For something you can't even name
That you haven't been able to come to the table
Simply glad that you came
And when you feel like this try to imagine
That we're all like frail boats on the sea
Just scanning the night for that great guiding light
Announcing the Jubilee — Mary Chapin Carpenter

My sisters and I were fortunate to travel through Asia and Europe at very young ages. We confronted extraordinary beauty in Athens and unspeakable poverty in India. — Mary Chapin Carpenter