Songwriting Quotes

“Songwriting has always been a means to an end for me. That end being a tool to try to understand myself in the world and, through observation, make sense of the world.”

“Within the songwriting community, there are these unwritten rules for the way that a song should be written in country music, and I think that those rules are constantly being broken over the years, and the molds change and the process is evolving.”

“I love performing, so I think there was an element of me that probably, deep down, loved parts of what the artist's life looked like, but I'm just so in love with the songwriting process, and I think that was what really gave me confidence. Even still, that process is the most sacred part to me.”

“You can't manufacture inspiration, so a lot of it is still a waiting game for me. There's still a lot of mystery to songwriting. I don't have a method that I can go back to - they either come or they don't.”

“I use the songwriting as medicine to kind of help me summarize how I'm feeling so that I can get past it.”

“It's true when they say songwriting is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. In truth, what happens is... songs comes through you.”

“The Swedish style of songwriting is so mathematical.”

“I feel like I'm creeping closer to finding the situation that triggers songwriting, which is obviously an extreme of an emotion.”

“My brain never turns off of songwriting. Every conversation, everything I see, I'm just kind of like a sponge and I soak it up.”

“Nothing can stop a great song, so just keep songwriting.”

“There's a lot of personal stuff that can go into songwriting but there's also a lot of dramatization and fictionalization. You have to do that to make a good song.”

“Songwriting is the other weight on the opposite side of the scale from touring. They balance me out creatively.”

“After two years in the songwriting world, I wrote 'All About That Bass.' L.A. Reid heard it and signed me as an artist.”

“Every riff had to be perfect and heavy, collectively what we wanted it to be. If there was one person in the room who went, 'Heh, I don't think it is there yet, guys,' we'd scrap the whole song. I think that took a little bit of songwriting maturity for us.”

“Songwriting isn't a choice. You're either called upon to bear the burden, or you're not. It's not all fun and games.”

“After a casual listen, it might be easy to lump Rocky Votolato in with the downtrodden likes of Conor Oberst and Elliott Smith. But his songwriting is a bit more triumphant than theirs: Votolato would rather pull himself out of a gutter than wallow in it, focusing instead on the victory before the misery.”

“Songwriting is the most terrifying thing to me, because you are really laying your heart out there.”

“Songwriters often seek the company of fellow songwriters to help finish what they've started, and these days, many do it at songwriting camps.”

“I've been listening to Stapleton for a long time. He's a hometown guy. I remember when I first heard word of him down there: songwriting and hearing those demos that were used for his publishing house and when he started Steeldrivers.”

“If a woman's aim is to become a singer, I would highly advise her to first develop her craft in songwriting. It's such a powerful tool to have when you're a singer.”