Songs Quotes

Gospel music was the thing that inspired me as a child growing up on a cotton farm, where work was drudgery and it was so hard that when I was in the field I sang all the time. Usually gospel songs because they lifted me up above that black dirt.

I love songs about horses, railroads, land, Judgment Day, family, hard times, whiskey, courtship, marriage, adultery, separation, murder, war, prison, rambling, damnation, home, salvation, death, pride, humor, piety, rebellion, patriotism, larceny, determination, tragedy, rowdiness, heartbreak and love. And Mother. And God.

The best songs just come unasked for. You don't have to think about them. Summer is a good time for songs.

Between childhood, boyhood, adolescence & manhood (maturity) there should be sharp lines drawn w/ Tests , deaths, feats, rites stories, songs, & judgements.

Give me songs to sing and emerald dreams to dream and I'll give you love unfolding.

I know I'm stronger in the songs than I really am. Sometimes I need to hear it myself. We all need to hear those empowering songs to remind us.

In my songs, I'm not saying something that's never been said before. The have lyrics aren't going to blow people away. It's the emotion and the melody that drive it home.

I could sing you a thousand and one doo-wop songs. I love the simplicity in that music. It's not super-poetic, it's just from the heart.

I just write songs that I strongly believe in and that are coming from inside. There's no tricks. It's honesty with big melodies.

The public has heard the stereotypical love songs a million times, and they've heard the stereotypical life-or-death songs millions of times. It's good to mix it up a little bit.

I would say, you can never do enough gigs and you can never do enough songs. Make sure that every opportunity you can, play a show and every opportunity you can, write a song.

I wanted to be that quirky girl who writes funny songs that still have meaning.

I don't care what people say about my relationship; I don't care what they say about my boobs. People are buying my songs; I have a sold-out tour. I'm getting incredible feedback from my music.

I find that when I get on stage now, I don't want to perform a lot of my songs because they don't feel like me. So I want to make songs that are timeless.

People - especially white people - they want me to be a role model just because of the life I lead. The things I say in my songs, they expect it of me.

I put one on the turntable and when the needle dropped, I was stunned - didn't know if I was stoned or straight... All these songs together, one after another made my head spin. It made me want to gasp. It was like the land parted.

I think I deliberately sold out a couple of times. I picked the songs that I thought would do well in the marketplace, even though I didn't really love the song.

One of the songs I wrote while living there was called 'Tearing Us Apart,' which was about 'the committee,' the group of Pattie's friends whom I now blamed for coming between us.

In writing songs I've learned as much from Cézanne as I have from Woody Guthrie.

I've never written a political song. Songs can't save the world. I've gone through all that.