Quotes About Songwriting

I could tell it was a popular move as a writer to walk down the bass lines while you were writing a song.

I've only written 30 songs or something. Dylan's written over 500 songs. There's no comparison. He's the Shakespeare of rock 'n' roll and popular music.

Everybody used to be busy writing songs - great songs - that became hits. Now everybody's writing hits. Everybody's desperately writing a hit because they know they can't survive if they don't have a hit. Where in the past, we were writing a song like 'More Than Words' on a porch, not really believing it was gonna be a hit.

I think I'm in a really nice position, where I'm sure I could do another show if I wanted to do one, but right now the main thing in my mind is writing songs.

I was obsessed with what a song was and what the possibilities of language in a song are.

I had posted a note on my bedroom door for my mum to 'wake me up-up before you go-go' - and that gave George the idea for the song.

I've played music since I was six, and I always wrote songs just for myself. I did it for fun, posting songs on Tumblr, Bandcamp, and Soundcloud. I didn't think anyone would notice.

When I was 13, I started posting songs every week that I'd written. They weren't fantastic, but people connected to them in some way. And that's the only way that I grow my audience as a writer.

My goal is to think of nothing when I'm writing a song because too many influences could sabotage a potentially amazing song.

Sometimes when you're writing a song, it's work, and you really have to make sure you're kind of pounding out every little piece of it. And then sometimes you write a song, and you turn around and you go, 'How did we do that?'

I like to write with people I have a relationship with; otherwise it's kind of scary, and you hold back because you don't want to pour your guts out to someone you never met.

I had this contract to write songs for people when I was about 18. I don't think any of them were taken up; I was a complete failure at it! But I've kept doing it, writing little songs for myself.

I always made my songs very conversational, and if anyone ever has a conversation with me, they know I'm a very open guy, very open and honest.

It must have been when I was 14 or 15 that I started tentatively writing songs and was able to convey an emotion and a lyric with what I wanted to say.

If I'm writing songs for a country-Western picture, I have to know about country music.

I've always covered some Dylan songs. I do one or two. And I do them because they're great songs. You know some people cover songs they wish they could have written, not me. I like to cover songs I know I could not have ever written.

I wanted to write songs that were as good as the covers.

I played around with GarageBand before, but I'd never actually made a proper song. So it was getting into the studio with him where I made my first proper song. I've always loved creative writing, so I had done that as well.

The best way to write a song is to think of something else and then the song kind of creeps in.

When I come home and have a new song I've written, she gives me an honest critique. If my wife likes it, I know I have something.

I feel like I want to write some songs and I don't know how to go about doing it. Usually it's the lyrics that are a problem, and I think I am not really cut out to be a lyricist.

There's many, many ways to write a song. But generally, sitting down at a table and writing is not one of them.

If you can take a piece of life and put it in a song, it's going to be a good song - especially if it's from the heart.

After I left the Pumpkins, I went home and just sat around. I have a studio in my basement, and I found myself writing all these songs, just taking advantage of the relaxed situation. I wrote about 30 songs in about 30 days.