American Songwriter Quotes

There is nothing more personal than your values. What you will and won't do to get ahead, the lines you will and won't cross to win, whom you will and won't step on for personal gain, are at the very core of your code of honor. And your code of honor determines your character. And your character is who you are. Behind closed doors. When nobody is watching.

We cannot evangelize until we have been evangelized. This happens most powerfully through solitary prayer.

John Michael Talbot

You know, [his voice trembling, hoarse, no more than a whisper] I always thought I'd go first. a

But more I cannot wish you Than to wish you find your love Your own true love this day.

We never expected anything, actually. I think we still don't expect anything. We were proud of the album when we finished it, so whatever success it has we are just like, 'Wow, cool.' It's not going to change the way we work or think. I'm as proud of this record now as I was when we finished it.

Cigarette holder,
which wigs me,
over her shoulder
she digs me:
Out cattin'
that Satin Doll.

Here I am, on the road again. There I am, up on the stage. Here I go, playing star again. There I go, turn the page.

There's nothing surer,
The rich get rich and the poor get poorer,
In the meantime, in between time,
Ain't we got fun.

I can feel a something pounding in my brain
Just any time that someone speaks your name
Trumpets sound and I hear thunder boom
Every time that you walk in the room.

Jackie DeShannon

In The Doors we have both musicians and poets, and both know of each other's art, so we can effect a synthesis. In the case of Tim Buckley or Dylan you have one man's ideas. Most groups today aren't groups. In a true group all the members create the arrangements among themselves.

There'll be no more Uncle Tom
At last that blessed day has come and we're a winner.
And everybody knows the truth
We just keep on pushin' like Martin Luther told you to
And I don't mind leavin' here to show the world we have no fear,
'Cause we're movin' on up, movin' on up.
Lord have mercy, we're movin' on up.

Curtis Mayfield

My growth was stopped at two years old. And when they talk about Axl Rose being a screaming two-year-old, they're right. There's a screaming two-year-old who's real pissed off and hides and won't show himself that often, even to me. Because I couldn't protect him. And the world didn't protect him.

On the road again, goin' places that I've never been. Seein' things that I may never see again, and I can't wait to get on the road again.

The only reason people go to bars is to get drunk and have sex. To me, bars are what hell is like.

Eight miles high,
And when you touch down
You'll find that
It's stranger than known.

Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

I've seen country music go uptown, like we say, and I'm proud I was there when it happened.

Don't count, feel! The only count I know, is Count Basie!

The things that matter the most in this world, they can never be held in our hand.

This Is Your Time, This Is Your Dance. Live Every Moment, Leave Nothing To Chance. Swim In The Sea. Drink Of The Deep, Embrace The Mystery Of All You Could Be. What if Tomorrow? And What If Today? Faced With The Question, Oh What Would You Say?

Michael W. Smith

I treat the act of making a record very much like working in a laboratory, experimenting with sounds and ideas... Whoever chooses to latch onto it, great; whoever doesn't, that's fine, too. The reaction always pales in comparison to the weight of the act of production.

See her smiling at him? That used to be me, and I could find her in a thunderstorm just by the way that the rain would fall.

You say we'll soar like two birds through the clouds, but soon you'll cage me on your shelf. I'll never learn to be just me, first by myself.

My band is the best band in the world, period. So, I insist on every song being better then it is on the record. So by the end of the tour, we have to be playing the song better then how it's recorded.

There's some records that sell millions of copies, that it's really unclear if anybody liked it who was making it, y'know?