Good Songwriter Quotes & Sayings

I can remember - barely - when Elton John was still a good songwriter, or at least capable of writing good songs. — Terry Teachout

Being a good songwriter means paying attention and sticking your hand out the window to catch the song on the way to someone else's house! — Nanci Griffith

I'm an around-the-way girl. I'm a singer, songwriter. I'm about positivity and spreading a good message and telling the people's story. — Elle Varner

I was a songwriter and I've written some good songs, but there are lots of greater songs that I know I have inside yet to come out. — Jimmy Cliff

I really enjoy playing solo acoustic. I think it's good for me as a songwriter to stay in touch with what it takes to make a song work by yourself. — Jeff Tweedy

I think if you're a good songwriter, that's what you are first - not a star or celebrity. — Tom Cochrane

With every record, with each band, I just try to make a song good. I'm not so much focusing on my technique. There are a million better drummers than me. I try to adapt to the songwriter; I try to adapt to the situation and retain my sort of melodic power. My goal is for the band to be good. — Janet Weiss

In Utero is a testament to the artistic vision of Kurt Cobain. It's kind of a weird record, and it's strangely beautiful at the same time. And if you look at Kurt's paintings and his drawings - he even did a sculpture for me - it's a rising, tortured-spirit person. It's kind of weird. It's done well, but it's like what Dave was saying about having your own sound. Kurt was a great songwriter. He knew he had a good ear for a hook [and was] a great singer, great guitar player, and In Utero is a good representation of what he liked in art and how he expressed himself. — Krist Novoselic

I think to be a good songwriter, you have to be able to play an instrument. — Joe Cocker

I think I'm an artistic radical, and I think I'll be recognized as one. I'm a really good musician and a songwriter, but I think my real legacy will be as a radical. — Billy Corgan

I don't think I'm a good-enough songwriter. — Gin Wigmore

As a songwriter, you try your best to write a good song, and you like nothing better than hearing a good song. It's easy to admire a great song, and you want to share out of enthusiasm. — Lyle Lovett

I wanted to be a singer. I wanted to be a musician. I wanted to travel and write songs and be a good songwriter. It came to me slowly after college. — Brett Dennen

I was a different person before I started to write. When I realized I could be a songwriter and that people would listen - that was when I started feeling good in my life. — Gwen Stefani

I've spent most of my life playing with Tom Petty, and he's a damn good songwriter. — Benmont Tench

You have to live what you write, or you have to know it. There are exceptions, like story songs, where you just have to have your facts straight. But I think you don't have to live a hard life to be a good or interesting songwriter. — Justin Townes Earle

As a singer and songwriter, I have great admiration for many of the budding stars who come to try their hand at performing and can relate to the hopes and aspirations of all the contestants, no matter how good or bad. — LeAnn Rimes

My job as a songwriter is to write good songs. — Greg Brown

Just knowing how to rap doesn't necessarily mean that you're a good songwriter. — Danny Brown

It should be if you're a good singer and a good songwriter, you should have your spot. You get everybody trying to release the prettiest guy, but that doesn't mean they're the best artist. Most of the time the true artists are just normal old dudes. — Randy Houser

You can go out and find ways to make your own record and get it out there now. If you really want to, you can be heard. Keep things simple. Learn to go out and play solo. That's a really really good thing to learn, if you're a singer-songwriter. Don't be dependent on a band because you may not always be able to afford one. — Steve Earle

I'm not particularly good at anything. I'm not an incredible guitarist or piano player or songwriter. I think what I do is, when I notice someone is really good at something, I try to get that out of them. — Benny Blanco

I told [my daughter Amy] at an early age that she had a good ear. But I didn't influence her music much. She's pretty much developed her style on her own, and she's a talented songwriter. — Mose Allison

What?" I ask.
He looks startled out of his thoughts. "What do you mean what?"

"I mean, just then," I say, "that look on your face. What were you thinking about?"

"I was thinking...that if I were going to kiss you, now would be a good time. Fireworks and all. Typical songwriter, always looking for poetic parallels. — Emery Lord

With the Republicans controlling both houses of Congress, this is the Eisenhower-era revisited. It's ostrich time, where people are looking for comfort rather than challenge in their art. It's a lot easier to listen to Barry Manilow murder what are actually good songs from the '50s than to consider what [left-leaning songwriter] Steve Earle has to say. — David Fricke

If you're a songwriter, you want to write a song like "Oh Yeah" that radically shifts everything. You can definitely retire on that song. You want to have something you can put in your songbook that everybody can recognize, whether it's a good or bad thing. — Margaret Cho

I never thought of myself as being a good songwriter. There are a ton of other people that are good songwriters, but I don't think I'm in the club. What I do well is perform, sometimes sing pretty good, and accompany myself well and arrange fairly well. — Alex Chilton

I think any songwriter or record, no matter how good it is, can become tedious if it's the same person's point of view. After four tracks, you start to get worn down no matter how good it is. It can be relentlessly good, but it's still going to wear you out. — Andrew Bird

I always knew Gordon Lightfoot was a really great songwriter, but his stuff even sounds better and better all the time. It's just so really good to me. It's just like that's what should be in a dictionary, you know, next to a really good contempory folk song, is a Gordon Lightfoot song. — John Prine

It was a matter of not seeing the woods for the trees. Glorious songs have been in Ireland forever, but a lot of these were so popular they were sung only by drunken men at weddings. They didn't have any regard for the song at all. So, I picked out 14 songs that I had grown up with, songs with great melodies. After 35 years as a songwriter, I appreciate the value of a good melody because I know how hard it is to write one. So I presented them in a new way, with piano, keyboards, strings, and a contemporary rhythm section. I just treated the melody with a bit of dignity and a bit of style. — Phil Coulter

You're really good with sweet-talk."
"I'm a songwriter, darlin'. Kinda comes with the territory. — J.T. Geissinger

A lot of people, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry and a lot of people have written for other people, and of course Bruno Mars. So I think it's a great way to break into the industry and show people what you can do and show them your talent and people tend to listen a little differently to your own music as an artist, when you've proven yourself as a good songwriter for other artists. — Bonnie McKee

When I got signed as a songwriter, I immediately thought, 'Oh, no one sees me as an artist because I don't look good enough.' So I shut down the whole idea. — Meghan Trainor

You can't write about stuff you don't know about. You have to live it. You have to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. Live life to be a good songwriter. — Dierks Bentley

I was one of those guys, you know, playing and singing, and there was no reason for me to write a song, because there were so many beautiful songs out. And Bob Dylan was always the ultimate songwriter, and nobody could ever write a song as good as him, and nobody ever has written a song as good as him. — John Mellencamp