Quotes About Songwriting

I just sat down and thought, I'm going to write a song today, I'm going to give it a try. So I just stuck it on a tape like everything else. That was just another song.

I find the songs I want to record by listening to as much music as I can. 'When I hear things I really like, I ask the writers to send me a tape of everything they've ever written.

I saw I could rhyme words. It came simply to me. But I wrote some pretty horrible songs that I still have on tape.

With songwriters like me who are prolific, you just write the song and then put it on tape.

I have a tape recorder, and I just sing into it. I like to write that way. Sometimes I'll just get melodic ideas, and then I'll go home and sit down and add the lyrics. Or sometimes I'll get a lyric idea that I love. Usually it's pretty combined. Usually I get some kind of a lyrical concept and a melody and work with that.

I ain't never far away from a pencil and paper or a tape recorder.

I'd say writing songs is, for me, as much playing the tape recorder as it is playing guitar or writing words.

In the beginning, if you look at those early label albums of the Chicks, we didn't write all that much. We had an A&R person and they were getting songs from publishers, listening to hours and hours of cassette tapes.

There's no one songwriter in the band. It's collaborative, and we all have different tastes.

I didn't start writing songs, honestly, until I started making my album. I was always doing poetry, but I never thought I could write songs. I discouraged myself and thought it was so hard. But starting this process and learning just what it is to be a songwriter and performer taught me that you don't have to feel discouraged about anything.

Taylor Goldsmith and I hit it off big time, and so we started writing some songs together.

Having listened to great songwriters like James Taylor and Carole King, I felt there was nothing new that was coming out that really represented me and the way I felt. So I started writing my own stuff.

I started playing guitar and writing songs when I was 15. I think what mainly sparked my interest was just the fact that I grew up listening to Cheryl King, Joni Mitchell, and James Taylor, and was just always inspired by that sort of organic art, and organic songs and just very natural songwriting that came out of some of those artists.

Mostly i write on an unplugged Mustang or a Baby Taylor.

Taylor Swift dates guys so she can write a breakup song about them. I don't think she's dating for love - I think she's dating for creativity. So let's get her off the market and put her in dating detox. If she really wants love, she has to stop writing music about them.

People were like, 'he's collaborating with Taylor Swift' and I was like, 'I am?' I think she's wonderful. Her songwriting has inspired me for years.

I'm like the male Taylor Swift.

I want to write with Taylor Swift!

It's very hard to teach someone how to write a song if to begin with there's no creative crop to harvest.

I teach songwriting a lot, and I always tell my students, 'You gotta write the little songs sometimes to get to the next big song in the chute.' You gotta write 'em to get to it. You never know what's going to be a little song or a big song.

I'd like to teach kids how to write songs. This will be my first year so I'm just as green as some of the rest of the folks. It's like a music camp and I get to hang out with some of the past contestants.

I'd have too much John ("Oh Yoko!," "I'm Steppin' Out," "Oh My Love," "New York City," "Nobody Told Me") and too much Paul ("Jet," "Friends to Go," "Flaming Pie," "Too Many People," "We Got Married," "Simple as That," "Hi, Hi, Hi," "You Gave Me the Answer").

The Chiffons had so many hits better than "He's So Fine"—"Out of This World," "Why Am I So Shy," "I Have a Boyfriend"—and it's a shame George never got around to rewriting those.) Just

In terms of love, you're not in control and I hate that feeling. I seem to write a lot of sad songs because I'm a very tragic person. But there's always an element of humour at the end.