Songwriter Quotes & Sayings

I don't think there's any problem with working with a songwriter or a producer, but I just don't think you should completely hand it over to them. — Howard Lawrence

It is cool to have a label head that is also a songwriter, in a band, and produces records. — Rivers Cuomo

I definitely consider myself a songwriter first because that's my best attribute. — Chad Kroeger

I'm more than a songwriter. I'm a creative person. Some people you just always see. I won't allow you to see me unless it makes sense. There's a reason to see me. — Ester Dean

I wanted to be a writer since I was a little girl - long before I was a musician and a songwriter. — Juliana Hatfield

For my whole career, I've been a singer-slash-songwriter, even though I'm very thankfully known for my voice. Songwriting has always been a joy in my life, and to be recognized for it is extremely validating. — Jennifer Nettles

Some things lend themselves well to songs, some things don't, and I'm learning that a lot at the moment. It's still a relatively new way of writing. It's only really the last five to 10 years that I've taken my writing seriously in this way, as something I can keep working toward. I think I feel myself much more before as simply a songwriter. — PJ Harvey

I swear I pick up little gems from every artist that I work with. That's why I'm so appreciative that I've been able to be a songwriter first. — Sevyn Streeter

Writing for somebody else is really fun 'cause I consider myself a songwriter first and foremost. — Kesha

As a songwriter you have an umbilical cord to the song and it's hard to expand on your understanding of the lyrics. Whereas when you cover a song you can create your own reason why you're attached to it. — K.d. Lang

Whether you're talking about Shakespeare or, you know, if you look at Greek tragedies. I mean, every playwright, every songwriter, every artist who's ever sat down and been moved to create something, has been living in a context. A political moment that's most often reflected in their work. Even if you're, you know, kind of a nature poet. — Sarah Jones

I think people appreciate a songwriter who shows different sides. The whole angst thing is cool, but if that's all you've got, it's just boring. Everything I write, whether it's happy or sad, has a sense of humor to it. — Katy Perry

Music is cyclical and as an artist and songwriter, you need to be able to predict what trend is coming next. — Wendy Starland

I'm a songwriter, and people will tell you the greatest stories about their lives, whether you want to hear it or not. — Lionel Richie

Yeah, I always listen to both classic and newer folk-influenced music. Singer-songwriter, alternative music. I also listen to more experimental dance music. — Brad Delson

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

The first thing Fontana did was get me to change my hair colour from light brown to red, and the songwriter Mitch Murray suggested I change my name from Pauline Matthews to Kiki Dee. — Kiki Dee

I think that's an interesting point of being a songwriter, is to write songs that make people think. — Joshua James Alphonse Franceschi

My brother was a fantastic cheerleader for my development as a musician. He was almost 10 years older than me and would really push me to develop as a songwriter. — Tori Amos

I'm more of an artist and a songwriter than I am a DJ. That word seems a little bit - well, it doesn't really describe what I do. — Kaskade

Whenever a songwriter writes a big hit, then the next 20 songs they write - no matter how bad they are - get recorded. — Ahmet Ertegun

I was in bands as a singer-guitarist-songwriter until 1980-81. So, there's a bunch of stuff. A lot of the stuff is hard to come by-stuff by the Special Interest Group and the Zobo Funn Band. The Zobo Funn Band was a big Northeast cult band. We had about a billion skirmishes with the big rock industry. — David Torn

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

For me, I'm more of a songwriter than a guitar player or singer. And not having things to work on was really kind of nice. — Doug Martsch

I'm a songwriter, that's what I love. — Berry Gordy

Smokey Robinson is one of my heroes as a singer and songwriter; a major influence on my own music from the very start. — Daryl Hall

We singer-songwriter people, we're used to getting up and doing our own thing in front of people, and we're it. We're the band, artist, writer, producer, front man. We're the whole thing. You develop, it's not smugness, but this self-reliance, that can limit your creativity. When you're willing and able to invite others into it, you wind up getting a piece of work that's bigger and better than anything you ever imagined it could be. — Andy Wilkinson

My real name is Chord Overstreet. I actually got my name because my dad is in the music business as a songwriter. I was the third one in my family born, and there are three notes in a chord, so that's how they came up with my name. — Chord Overstreet

It's a scary question for a musician or songwriter today - what does the future hold? It is a strange time in the music business too; it feels like we are all in some kind of transitional period, stuck between old technology and new. — Dean Wareham

That's one of the things I love about being a songwriter first, last and always, because whether I do it or not, if someone does a great job on it, my work is done. — Carole King

Sometimes it may seem dark, but the absence of the light is a necessary part. — Jason Mraz

What I wanted to be and who I am is a singer and a songwriter. I wanted to be onstage, and I wanted the world to hear my music. The product of that is fame and the disgusting celebrity that goes along with it. But celebrity does not equal creativity. — Katy Perry

I don't want to be a critic of the world. I want to encourage it. — Charlotte Eriksson

A lot of people who were writing when I came through originally as a singer-songwriter have disappeared. — Van Morrison

After the Beatles and Dylan, there's this assumption that you are a singer-songwriter, or that if someone else is writing your rhymes, you're a fake rapper. — Alan Light

I built a reputation as a songwriter in the industry before my own hits. People were used to coming to me for songs. There were songs like 'Clown' and 'Mountains' that were my songs that I wanted to keep. But the record labels saw me as a songwriter. It was hard to get people to believe in me as an artist. — Emeli Sande

The thing about being a songwriter is,even if you been fucked over, you can find consolation in writing about it, and pour it out. Everything has something to do with something; nothing is divorced. It becomes an experience,a feeling or a aconglomeration of experiences ... — Keith Richards

Being a creator of a song I get to take all these broken fragments of failure and chaos and weave together something beautiful and meaningful. Decay. Death. Pain. Fall. And if God is a songwriter then these fallen leaves of mine can be redeemed — Jon Foreman

I was a coat-checker at Orso, and all these wonderful actors were coming in, and it was exciting to me, so I started going to classes, and my excuse was, 'I'll be a better songwriter if I can understand how to play a character.' Well, that couldn't be farther from the truth. — Sophie B. Hawkins

Denice Franke is a sensitive and compelling singer and songwriter. — Lyle Lovett

Since I was old enough to understand what a songwriter/producer is, I've had a curiosity about how Max Martin creates what he creates. I wanted to see that happen. I wanted to be there. I wanted to learn from him. — Taylor Swift

As a songwriter, you respect and appreciate the writings of other people, and I often get asked, are there songs out there I wish I'd written? Yes. There's many of them! — Dolly Parton

I'm tired of Glen Matlock saying he was the songwriter for the Sex Pistols. I co-wrote as many songs ... but I don't go shouting about it. — Steve Jones

The exciting thing about a songwriter is that, you know, particularly if you're a songwriter and an artist and you play the parts and you're producing it and all that, you have various times you have to critique what you do. — Stevie Wonder

I went to high school right outside Dallas, and (songwriter and performer) Michael Martin Murphey was a senior there when I was a sophomore or junior, really into folk and acoustic music. Larry Gross, who's the host of "Mountain Stage" on public radio, and B.W. Stevenson, also a musician, were there at the same time, too. Michael was a big inspiration
through him I discovered Woody Guthrie, Dylan, Jimmy Rogers. Then I ran into Jerry Jeff Walker there in Dallas back when he was just a folk singer. Those are my earliest influences. — Ray Wylie Hubbard

I'm sure I would have been considered a more significant artist if I was a singer-songwriter. It's just not the way I roll. I love being a curator and a musicologist. People write me letters and thank me for turning them on to Fred McDowell and Sippie Wallace, and that's partly my job this time around. — Bonnie Raitt

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

John McCutcheon is not only one of the best musicians in the USA, but also a great singer, songwriter, and song leader. And not just incidentally, he is committed to helping hard-working people everywhere to organize and push this world in a better direction. — Pete Seeger

Dear Sir: I will wish to establish my name as the best Ethiopian songwriter. But I am not encouraged in undertaking this as long as 'The Old Folks At Home' stares me in the face with another's name on it. — Stephen Foster

She's got everything she needs; she's an artist, she don't look back. — Bob Dylan

Miranda Lambert is actually mixing the singer-songwriter philosophy with the commercial country [mindset]. And I find it just inspiring. My hat's off completely, because she's pulling it off, and I couldn't figure out a way to do it. — Allison Moorer

'Marvin Gaye' came about my first day in L.A. It was kind of crazy that that's my first song that I wrote and it blew up that much. What's crazy is the next day I wrote 'See You Again,' so that's pretty interesting. I was trying to prove myself as a songwriter. — Charlie Puth

When I am not working, I go to the movies, text my friends, my thumbs are faster than lightening on that keyboard!, write songs, sing, dance, Facebook, Twitter and spend time with my besties. I am also a songwriter and I love to write about my life experiences. — Ariel Winter

But I really do have a soft spot for the solo shows. Any musician who writes and sings will tell you that's the center of it, that is it. It's almost like there's something church-like about it and you gotta go back there, if you're a songwriter that sings your material. — Ben Folds

It was kind of like songwriter's boot camp. You had to produce. You had to produce fast. You had to learn. — Cynthia Weil

I took a road that wasn't the road, but it was something I chose and that's fine. — Tom Rosenthal

As a songwriter, I try not to be sloppy; same with the music. You can be very lean, very efficient, so you're not wasting a lot of time getting' to the point. You're saying it with as pure a word or phrase as you can. That's the part that was craft. You refine and refine and refine. Maybe that's why the songs still hang on, because they're very pure. For one thing, they're very short. "Bad Moon Rising" is like 2 minutes and 12 seconds. I would try to do everything as quickly and with as little extra as possible. It was a challenge. — John Fogerty

The Bee Gees were always heavily influenced by black music. As a songwriter, it's never been difficult to pick up on the changing styles of music out there, and soul has always been my favourite genre. — Robin Gibb

I realized that, as a songwriter, the only thing I really do is make jewelry for the inside of other people's minds. — Elizabeth Gilbert

There's certain things as a songwriter that I don't really care to write about, and there are certain things I won't sing about anymore. There are just so many things that I probably thought was OK for me, or have been in the past, that I would never want my son to think was OK. — Randy Houser

The roughest part for me when I'm writing a song is staring at a blank page. Where am I going from here? If you're a songwriter, you have to do that every time you start a song. — Bob Weir

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

I don't really like to call myself a brand, and I don't like to think of myself as a brand. I'm a singer, a songwriter, a musician and a performer. And an actress, and all the other things that I do. When you add it all together, some might call it a brand, but that's not my focus. — Beyonce Knowles

I made numerous attempts to find a way to do it all, to be a creative singer, songwriter, producer, and to be the mother, daughter, sister, lover, wife. And the thing about music is, with me, that she's a harsh mistress. She does not come to me in the midst of stress. — Anita Baker

I think one thing you could probably say for all my albums is that they're all pretty eclectic pop. There's always a little bit of urban influence, some dance, a little bit of country, singer-songwriter, pop-rock. I like everything! On every album you can find that. — Kelly Clarkson

I love being a very personal singer-songwriter, but I also like being a scientist or explorer. — Bjork

I like working with other people but I'm not a songwriter, I'm a producer. — Josh Silver

Anyway, in my performance style, I'm a singer-songwriter. People can call it neo-soul or R&B or whatever. But at the core, when you see me live, I'm a singer-songwriter. — India.Arie

Vulnerability can be empowering as a songwriter and storyteller. — Tori Amos

And that's the kind of thing people think, you know, that if you sign up to be a singer-songwriter you know how to deal with people setting up hate websites, or people being obsessed with you and crying when you touch them, but you don't, and you just have to deal with. — Jessie J.

I think of myself as a producer who tries to bring the best out of everyone, whether that be an artist, songwriter or a publicist. — L.A. Reid

I think that there have been times, especially with writing songs, where you sit in a room with somebody, and they could be a very well-respected songwriter, but for whatever reason, the chemistry is just not right. — Dave Koz

Although I have guitars all around and I pick themm up occasionally and write a tune and make a record, I don't really see myself as a musician. It may seem a funny thing to say. It's just like, I write lyrics amd I make up songs, but I'm not a great lyricist or songwriter or producer. It's when you put all these things together - that makes me. — George Harrison

Music is a handshake where I, as a songwriter, am only part of the equation. I love that, the fact that you can make the song your own. — Jon Foreman

I think inside every rock journalist, there's somebody who wishes they had the courage to live the life that they're not, and that they're writing about. But at the same time, inside every songwriter, I guess there's a wish for happiness. — Glen Hansard

I think the singer/songwriter genre is going to be like bluegrass and jazz. You can make a living at it, but it's not part of the musical mainstream anymore. — Steve Earle

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 really want to be just a singer-songwriter. That's who I am. — Jessica Simpson

Time flows smoother when you are with people you love. — Charlotte Eriksson

No matter how long what I'm doing here lasts, I want to be a songwriter for the rest of my life. I love it and it's my escape. — Miley Cyrus

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

My identity is mostly as a songwriter and lyricist and singer. I also have a lot of production ideas but I have my own limitations in terms of what instruments I'm actually proficient at and what I can do myself, so I really love working with people on the production end; just really going for it with orchestration and instrumentation and production. That's where I see myself going: maintaining my integrity and abilities as a songwriter, but applying it to different contexts, to where I can put on a huge feathered costume and roll around in the ocean. — Mirah

There's a lot of craft that goes into achieving a hit song - at the beginning of your career, you're usually more inspiration than craft, and you get great when those intersect. A skilled songwriter can get you to that intersection. — Kara DioGuardi

I like the idea that a song can be something that you can lean on, both for the songwriter and for the person who hears the song. — Rostam Batmanglij

As a songwriter, it's kind of hard to listen to your own stuff with clarity. — Stone Gossard

Melanie Fiona is a singer, a songwriter, she's a super-girl. I can be silly, goofy, really chilled. She's like your cool chill girlfriend, sister-friend. I'm just like everybody else. — Melanie Fiona

The most important thing to me as a songwriter is the breath. The most important thing I could say to somebody is, 'Sometimes I just breathe you in.' — Tori Amos

That little Miley Cyrus ... she's like a little Elvis. The kids love her because she's Hannah Montana, but what people don't realize about her is she is such a fantastic singer and songwriter. She writes songs like she's 40 years old! — Dolly Parton

I'm a songwriter first. — Carole King

I'm an American songwriter, and I write from a very American perspective, and so did the records I grew up listening to. — Jenny Lewis

As a songwriter, I don't rush. I may sit on lyrics for two years before the music hits. — Ben Harper

A songwriter should have friends who are similarly interested; should move about in the milieu of work he has chosen for himself. — Dorothy Fields

I wanted to do an acting role in a movie that had nothing to do with the music business or in which I would play a singer or a songwriter. When I act, I don't even want to be thought of as Ne-Yo. — Ne-Yo

I think I'm a songwriter. I grab an instrument to make my body a song, but I'm not a player as such, maybe a little more on guitar, but certainly not piano. — P.J. Harvey

If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with. — Michael Jackson

The one mentality I've always tried to have is that no matter what stage in your career that you are in as a musician or a performer or a songwriter or whatever, there's always more to learn. — Nick Jonas

I always was really confident about myself, about my voice, myself as a person, my body, all of those things, but as a songwriter - I just didn't identify as a songwriter at all. — Beth Ditto

I quite like American music, like The Fray - I'm a massive fan of them - and The Killers. I also like more acoustic stuff like Ed Sheeran; I like this English songwriter James Morrison and another singer called Ben Howard. — Louis Tomlinson

I always loved singing, but I thought it was like drawing - just something you do in your own little corner to calm yourself down. But when my friend, the French songwriter Etienne Daho, listened to my songs, he was so moved that told me that I had to do a demo, share them with the world. — Lou Doillon

If you're a songwriter, it's to perform your songs. For singers, it's just to get to sing somewhere. So while there may be a reluctance with all the things that go along with it, you got to choose, and this is one of my big opportunities to get back doing it. — Donnie Fritts