Quotes from Tracy Chapman

As a child I always had a sense of social conditions and political situations. I think it had to do with the fact that my mother was always discussing things with my sister and me - also because I read a lot.

I decided to do whatever I could to make sure the business side of music didn't intrude on the creative part.

I grew up with music in the house. I was told I could sing as soon as I started talking. Everybody in my family sang, always lots of records, blues and jazz and soul, R&B, you know, like Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Coltrane, that kind of thing.

I never travelled when I was younger.

When we started making 'Where You Live', I bought a bunch of Polaroid cameras in so that people could record the experience. Some of those pictures are in the CD sleeve.

I really love playing music with other people. It's more fun to be on the road with others. It's kind of lonely out there when you play on your own!

I love living in California and being able to go to the beach or go to the woods.

What does the future look like if the heads of society ask our young people to risk their lives for questionable causes? I think it looks rather bleak.

Now love's the only thing thats free. We must take it where it's found. Pretty soon it may be costly.

As I started to consider a career in music, I hoped for success, truthfully. I didn't imagine anything that would amass the level of the first record, but I hoped that I would be able to sustain a career.

Songwriting is a very mysterious process. It feels like creating something from nothing. It's something I don't feel like I really control.

It all comes together. It's - that's the way it's always worked for me with songwriting.

Love is hateWar is PeaceNo is YesAnd we're all free.

I'm not sure about anything as far as religion and spirituality go.

I don't know - I'm not sure about anything as far as religion and spirituality go.

There's a time and place for everything, and my focus is music. So that's what I prefer to spend most of my time doing, and not talk about making music.

That's what everyone should do with their lives: stand up for what they believe in or try to do some good in the world. I don't think artists have a greater responsibility than anyone else.

The songs are not necessarily autobiographical. A lot of songs are a combination of influences. It might be some part of my life, or something I've felt, or something somebody's told me. It all comes together.

With other people, you're always swapping music. Somebody is always listening to something you've never heard. It's a great way to hear all sorts of new things.

There are some concerns that are universal. Everyone wants to be loved, and everyone wants to feel like they belong somewhere in the world. Everyone wants to do something and feel like they have a sense of purpose. These are just the things that I think about and the things that make their way into my songwriting.

I think many people would say that writers like Stephen King have hypergraphia.

If you are living a life that feels right to you, if you're willing to take creative chances or a creative path that feels like it's mostly in keeping with your sensibilities, you know, aesthetic and artistic, then that's what matters.

There have been some gains made in terms of more equality for women in the workplace and in the way the legal system deals with issues of violence against women.

That's one of the things I like about San Francisco. It's not like anywhere else in the world.