Quotes from Tracy Chapman

I think of the audience the way I would think of another person: You meet someone, then you take it from there; you see what's interesting to both of you.

I won't get into it any more than to say that there are parts of me in all the songs that I write.

When you feel like you've had a good show, you go backstage and you talk to yourself about it, and if you have a bad show you talk to yourself about it.

You have to pay attention to the moment and make it the best it can be for you. I've been trying to do that. It's really made a major difference for me. I'm a happier person.

Stand up for yourself and fight for your right to be the artist that you want to be. There's plenty of pressure from outside; people tell you how to dress and how to sing or what to sing, but I always felt like if I'm going to fail or succeed, I want to do it on my own terms.

We do need to think about how we have security - everyone has a right to that - but we also need to think about how we maintain civil rights and personal freedom.

I picked up the guitar at 11, but even before then, I was writing songs on the organ.

I had a ukulele when I was much younger. I have no idea what happened to it but I think that was part of it, just being inspired and wanting to try to play an instrument that, to me, sounded beautiful.

My old man's got a problem, he lives with the bottle.

I often write either really early in the morning, or really late at night.

Growing up in Cleveland, I learned about singing from my mother, who had once sung professionally and who admired Mahalia Jackson and Aretha Franklin.

I think it's important, if you are an artist, to use your music to stand up for what you believe in.

I've seen and met angels wearing the disguise of ordinary people living ordinary lives.

There's a power in words. There's a power in being able to explain and describe and articulate what you know and feel and believe about the world, and about yourself.

Men are able to sustain a career into their 50s and 60s and still present themselves as sex symbols. With women, on the other hand, people say, 'Why doesn't she retire?'

Have faith in humankind a respect for what is earthly and an unfaltering belief in peace and understanding

I may be revered or defamed and decried; But I tried to live my life right.

I found myself in the middle of a race riot when I was about 14 years old, and I found someone pointing a gun at me and telling me to run or they'd shoot me.

I don't want someone to squeeze me, that might take away my life. Just want someone to hold me, and we'll rock through the night.

I learn all these things about the record talking about it after it's finished.

Everyone is looking for connections between the songs. I don't usually approach a record as a concept. There's no overriding theme I'm trying to represent. It's all about the individual songs.

I meet people in my daily life, people who seem to experience some change and some growth on a personal level, and that gives me hope.

The way popular music is categorized and formatted cuts down on everyone's options. And although people don't talk about it, there are a lot of issues of race determining musical categories of what's rock, R&B, or even folk. It ends up restricting creativity.

We have more media than ever and more technology in our lives. It's supposed to help us communicate, but it has the opposite effect of isolating us.