Quotes from Tracy Chapman

It's time to start all over/make a new beginning.

A lot of kids spent more time out of school than in, but I always loved school and thought it was my way out of Cleveland, and out of poverty.

As a child I spent a lot of time at the library.

There are good reasons for being in jail - for protesting.

I mentioned that I received a scholarship to Episcopalian school, and the model for the school was 'From each according to his or her ability and to each according to his or her need.' And it's something that is still really important to me in thinking about how I prioritize what I do with my life.

At this point in my life Id like to live as if only love mattered.

This youthful heart can love you and give you what you need, but I'm too old to go chasing you around wasting my precious energy.

I'm a hopeful cynic.

People's real hopes and dreams can be distorted and misdirected and packaged until you're not sure what you really want or what you even really need.

I can't think of anything worse, really, than to try to live up to someone else's expectations of what you should be. You don't make art by consensus.

Maybe it's naive to say, but it almost seems like, in the past, people tried to sell you something you would actually need, like a hammer or a broom or a toothbrush. But now there's this notion that they can sell you anything. And all they have to do is convince you that you need it.

I end up writing about all kinds of things. I never make an attempt to write about anything in particular. I don't have a little list of topics to write about.

I never assumed I would have that commercial success, so it was a total surprise. And honestly, I never assumed that it would ever happen again.

I see some recurring themes: things that feel threaded together, some symbolic references, and songs about some of the big questions, like death. There are a lot of references to weather, too!

I think religion played a huge part in Bush's re-election.

So much has happened to obscure the dialogue about race and about gender and discrimination in general, especially where those things touch on economics.

After it's finished, sometimes I can trace a path that goes back to the possible source of inspiration.

I'm not sure if the next song I write is going to be about love or a song about a tree.

So don't be tempted by the shiny apple Don't you eat of a bitter fruit Hunger only for a taste of justice Hunger only for a world of truth 'Cause all that you have is your soul.

I'm still thinking and hoping there's an opportunity for people to have better lives and that significant change can occur.

Honestly, I think, as an artist, it's everything that's in your life that informs what you do. So, obviously, growing up in Cleveland has played a big role in how I see the world.

Music was never just a hobby for me. I'd pick up a guitar every day to work on whatever I was writing at the time. I would put my ideas in songs the way some people might put them in diaries or journals.

My older sister encouraged me from early on and bought me one of the first guitars I had. She listened to all of the crappy songs that I wrote when I was 8 years old and encouraged me to keep doing it.

I was raised in a Baptist tradition, but then I went to an Episcopalian high school, and they were very accepting of people of all faiths.