Quotes About Songwriting

I'm the kind of person who needs to feel like everything happens for a reason. When you date a guy and it goes badly, that's horrible. But if you can write a song about it, then it was worth it.

I push myself in a lot of aspects when I write a song. I write a piece and where most people would stop and say, 'Oh, that's the hook right there,' I'll move that to the first four bars of the verse and do a new hook.

My songwriting is very personal. The music that influenced me was so impactful that had I grown up somewhere else, I know I would still write the same way I do because of those influences.

I write heavily under the influence of James Taylor.

Why I got into music was James Taylor, so to see him be a real down-to-earth guy that's unbelievably talented... then to hear him sing those lyrics of 'What I'm Thankful For,' which is a song Ms. Yearwood and I got to write together, that was definitely a highlight of my recording life.

After the Texas Playboys and during that time, I had this band in college that I was in called Thrift Store Cowboys. It was me and a couple other dudes would write the songs.

I play in a band, I write songs, I sing, you know, perform on stage.

I am writing things on my own, but I really believe co-writing makes you a better writer.

People send me songs all the time that are literally no-brainer hits... but for me, I'm an artist because I'm a writer.

I always tell people I write songs, but I'm a writer. It's a difference. I can write songs to music, but I can write a story. I can see ideas spark in me.

I love co-writing. That whole process is a challenge in that good writers are pushing you.

New writers don't throw tantrums, they have time. I can make them work on one song for a week.

I've covered so much Tom Waits. He's one of my favorite writers. I have a real affinity to how he writes.

I'm competitive with anyone who writes a good song - I don't care if it's a band or solo artist or whoever.

I've always had such a high level of respect for Taylor Swift because she writes all of her music.

I'm inspired by artists like Robyn, just because she writes amazing pop songs, and they're not throwaway. When I listen to a Robyn pop song, I don't feel like she's just kind of saying something and not thinking; I feel like it's really emotional.

I aspire to write like Robert Wyatt. I take a lot of inspiration from the way he writes.

For me, Paul Simon has always been an incredible songwriter, as he writes very complicated songs that sound very simple, and he makes it look so easy when it's not.

I have yet to have a successful outcome of sitting in a room with someone and trying to write a song. The way that I generally co-write is that someone else writes the music or part of the music.

We really try to make sure that the band writes the songs, not just one person.

I can't judge myself by 'God Only Knows.' No one writes songs as good as that.

Well, playing a guy who writes songs and busks on Grafton Street in Dublin and falls in love with Marketa Irglova wasn't very difficult for me. There was very little acting going on.

I don't actually have to think very hard when I'm writing. I mean, there are times where it's a task, and you have to plug away and plug away. But then there are times when a song writes itself in 15 minutes, and you're just struggling to keep up with it.

If you're somebody who writes songs or writes fiction, a writer that people pay for your opinion in any way, you shouldn't be the least bit uncomfortable giving it to them. People want songwriters to tell them how they think and how they feel. That's what a song is. That's what I want to hear in a song.