Quotes About Songwriting

I have a natural instinct to feel guilty and that I've let people down. I've apologized in more songs than 'Back to the Shack.' Going back to our second record, the closing lines are 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.' It's definitely part of my personality.

People keep putting limitations on themselves and creating this reality that soul music is dead. That's only in their reality. It's not true. To me, Adele is R&B. Bruno Mars is R&B. It's just good songwriting and songs. That is going to last.

I would love to work with Paolo Nutini because he is so soulful and an amazing songwriter.

Just like any songwriter, the songs come out of where I am in my life and what I'm doing and who I'm hanging out with and the kind of sounds I'm imagining. I always loved the idea of it evolving in the same way that life changes.

A song that sounds simple is just not that easy to write. One of the objectives of this record was to try and write melodies that continue to resonate.

The 'sent' folder of my email program is really my biggest inspiration and my biggest source of lyrics. That's where I go to pick up a lot of the lyrics that I'm writing.

Yes, I did lock myself in my room for about two years and write some songs and things like that. But I don't feel like I missed out on a whole lot.

But I'll never write another Missing You' again as long as I live. I hope that I'll write a good song, but I don't think that I'll be able to write another song that will reach people that much.

I like to record something pretty much as soon as I have an idea for a song, but I'm on so many buses, I have to record on my mobile.

We have a history in country music of writing about the darker side of things - maybe not as much in modern times, but there's a lot of cheating and self-deprecation. We sort it out in song, in country music, as a genre.

I've never gotten money from most of those records. And I made those records: In the studio, they'd just give me a bunch of words, I'd make up a song! The rhythm and everything. 'Good Golly Miss Molly'! And I didn't get a dime for it.

I wrote 'On Second Thought' in five minutes in the back of my bus going through Montana.

I often write songs, and when I do, I usually write quite a few of them. I really have to be in the mood.

I don't just do power ballads. I have a lot of up-tempo stuff, too - like 'Can't Fight the Moonlight.'

I've learned a lot from Dave Stewart; he's a serial collaborator. He's co-written songs with more people than anybody I know - like the most incredible people too.

My motivations are thinking I can write better songs, that the concerts can be better.

I respect country music because I feel like it's more about the talent and the songwriting and I put on a big show and we have a lot of stuff, but I feel confident in myself enough as an artist and a singer that I can have all of those fun toys and know that we don't need all the bells and whistles either.

I think Bruno Mars is a great example of a great voice and classic songwriting with a twist that makes it contemporary. I think he's done a great job of it. I think Katy Perry has undeniable songs for what she does, for that pop market. And, if we're talking in the truly pop market, I would say those two.

Every song you write you think is the last one you're going to manage. You put everything you've got into the song, and you've twisted it and pulled at it and dug in and found a way to complete it. To get another one is the trick.

We never really write 'love' love songs. There's always something twisted about them. But as far as love songs, women just became way more important to us after we turned 21, as a band in general. Kind of broke up our boyhood solidarity as we started branching out into babes.

My favorite songwriting trick is writing something like 'XO.' In my brain, I thought, 'This is probably going to be a love song. How can I change that and find ways to twist that.' As a songwriter, it's your job for the song to take twists and turns that people don't expect.

When I am not working, I go to the movies, text my friends, my thumbs are faster than lightening on that keyboard!, write songs, sing, dance, Facebook, Twitter and spend time with my besties. I am also a songwriter and I love to write about my life experiences.

Somebody described it to me the best as when you go in to write a song with two people that you've never met, you're pretty much going in and taking off your pants in front of strangers, so it's a really weird feeling.

My husband and I had the opportunity to write some stuff for other people. We both tried it. I think it lasted about two weeks, and we both felt ridiculous. It just didn't work for us.