Songwriting is my way of channeling my feelings and my thoughts. Not just mine, but the things I see, the people I care about. My head would explode if I didn’t get some of that stuff out.
Dolly PartonWhen I put out ‚Video Games‘ in May 2011, it was a 5:25-minute love song; I was surprised when a lot of people said they were listening to it. I was surprised when it went to the radio, without me even knowing how something like that even happens!
Lana Del ReyWe moved into the back, made it into a little 50s sitting room and started to sell the records. We had an immediate success. For one thing, these Teddy Boys were thrilled to buy the records.
Vivienne WestwoodFrom the beginning of my rap career, since I was seen and heard, I always had a store.
Nipsey HussleWhat I think is fair to say is that, coming out of the Republican camp, there have been efforts to suggest that perhaps I’m not who I say I am when it comes to my faith – something which I find deeply offensive, and that has been going on for a pretty long time.
Barack ObamaWhen ‚Paul’s Boutique‘ came out, I was one of the fans that didn’t get it.
EminemHe has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.
Abraham LincolnMy goal in music is to create nostalgic moments.
Bad BunnyArt is parasitic on life, just as criticism is parasitic on art.
Harry S. TrumanMy fans love me for me, my beats, my rhymes.
J. ColeSitting on a bedroom floor crying is something that makes you feel really alone. If someone’s singing about that feeling, you feel bonded to that person.
Taylor SwiftI was ready to quit music. It felt to me like music equalled death.
Dave GrohlBetter a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly.
PlatoI used to sing songs and write with my uncle, Bill Owens.
Dolly PartonI always had a knack for improvisation. I can write down the notes I play, but never really had a proper academic musical background. I suppose I’m blessed and cursed by the fact I have that freedom.
Anthony HopkinsMaking music is like shopping for me. Every song is like a new pair of shoes.
RihannaMusic keeps the heart porous in many ways.
BonoI often get ideas for songs on the tour bus at odd times. Like at 6am when no one is around, I’d just write.
Taylor SwiftIf you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together.
Richard M. NixonBob Dylan is like an alien on this earth, and I love him! I cried when I saw him play live because I was so close to him.
AuroraI think ABBA have a pure joy to their music and that’s what makes them extraordinary.
BonoI’ve always written songs the same way. You learn different tricks – you learn craft, you learn structure, all that – as you go.
Taylor SwiftI’ve always felt music is the only way to give an instantaneous moment the feel of slow motion. To romanticise it and glorify it and give it a soundtrack and a rhythm.
Taylor SwiftThe sound and music are 50% of the entertainment in a movie.
George LucasFor the chorus of ‚Secrets,‘ we used The Romantics‘ ‚Talking in Your Sleep‘ and ‚Pale Shelter‘ by Tears for Fears. It’s like hip-hop: just grab it.
The WeekndI enjoy singing my songs in front of people. I enjoy being involved in making the artwork for albums and stupid stuff like that.
Frank OceanI just wanted to be a composer; I became an actor by default, really. I got a scholarship to a college of music and drama, hoping to take a scholarship in music. But I ended up as an acting student, so I’ve stuck with that for the last 50-odd years.
Anthony HopkinsThis thing that I do with caring about the message in my music, it’s not separate from my work as a commercial artist; they’re totally one and the same. I’m always going to be thinking about what my voice means.
Lady GagaIt is one thing to record an album but it’s a huge difference when people play it and listen to it and embrace it the way that I do. It has always been my dream to get my music out to the world and have people hear it.
RihannaWe were all on this ship in the sixties, our generation, a ship going to discover the New World. And the Beatles were in the crow’s nest of that ship.
John LennonMy fans don’t feel like I hold anything back from them. They know whatever I’m going through now, they’ll hear about it on a record someday. They’ll hear the real story. There’s a little bit of lag time. It’s not as instant as going on a gossip blog. But it’s much more accurate.
Taylor SwiftI don’t want to do free jazz! Because free jazz – which is the musical equivalent of free marketeering – isn’t actually free at all. It’s just constrained by what your muscles can do.
Brian EnoNo rapper in the world from Jay-Z to Tupac to Biggie has 100 percent love on everything they do.
J. ColeTo understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions.
Marcus AureliusUsually, when Nirvana made music, there wasn’t a lot of conversation. We wanted everything to be surreal. We didn’t want to have some contrived composition.
Dave GrohlHe who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.
Albert EinsteinMy music fights against the system that teaches to live and die.
Bob MarleyIt confuses me and disappoints me when somebody says, ‚What does he do? What does he do?‘ My records are some of the biggest anthems ever. What do you think, they magically just appear? Obama walked out to my record.
DJ KhaledSome people focus more on sonics. Some people focus more on story. I focus on both sonics and story, but music sometimes, just music itself, can turn into more of a maths problem. I guess everything in life is a math problem, but it can be more about an empirical route to getting the symmetry that you want, and this vibe, sonically.
Frank OceanA critic should be taught to criticise a work of art without making any reference to the personality of the author.
Oscar WildeYou just don’t wake up one day and decide that you need to write songs.
Bob DylanOne of the interesting things about having little musical knowledge is that you generate surprising results sometimes; you move to places you wouldn’t if you knew better.
Brian EnoThis is the thing about hip-hop music and where people get it most misconstrued: It’s all hip-hop. You can’t say that just what I do is hip-hop, because hip-hop is all energies. James Brown can get on the track and mumble all day. But guess what? You felt his soul on those records.
Kendrick LamarI’ve had mixtapes that have been better than albums I’ve heard from other artists. I take my time; I put my heart into it.
Kevin GatesSing me a new song; the world is transfigured; all the Heavens are rejoicing.
Friedrich NietzscheThere can be no doubt that the average man blames much more than he praises. His instinct is to blame. If he is satisfied he says nothing; if he is not, he most illogically kicks up a row.
Golda MeirI’ve rarely seen video screens used well in a music concert.
David ByrneThe mainstream is always under attack.
Bill GatesIt is only in his music, which Americans are able to admire because a protective sentimentality limits their understanding of it, that the Negro in America has been able to tell his story.
James BaldwinI grew up listening to the Police, I grew up performing in bars, singing Police songs.
Bruno MarsI wanted to only create a great perfume, not any perfume that would sell, but a great artistic one that the fans would not feel cheated by.
Lady GagaIt’s so sweet, I feel like my teeth are rotting when I listen to the radio.
BonoRhythm is something you either have or don’t have, but when you have it, you have it all over.
Elvis PresleyI’m not going to make a song just to make a song. The day that I make an album, it’s so that people really know what Bad Bunny’s about.
Bad BunnyI don’t even listen to rap. My apartment is too nice to listen to rap in.
Kanye WestI really like Lady GaGa and everything she is for her fans.
Taylor SwiftYou get to a point where it’s like you can’t really do anything right, and people will pick on you for whatever decisions you make, so I just try and take no notice and get on with my music.
Taylor SwiftThe lyrics are constructed as empirically as the music. I don’t set out to say anything very important.
Brian EnoIf tomorrow I want to release a rock album or I want to release a bachata album, nobody can tell me anything – why can’t I?
Bad BunnyMy songs always sound a lot better in person than they do on the record.
Bob Dylan