Songwriter Quotes

As a songwriter, I was influenced by David Bowie - a great writer. A class above everybody in so many ways. Lennon and McCartney, of course. Class stuff. David Cousins was my favorite lyricist.

I consider myself to be an inept pianist, a bad singer, and a merely competent songwriter. What I do, in my opinion, is by no means extraordinary.

No matter how long what I'm doing here lasts, I want to be a songwriter for the rest of my life. I love it and it's my escape.

The hack songwriter will write the absolute truth every single word, whether it makes a great song or not.

Being a songwriter does not rely on an audience or other band members or a camera. I can just sit in a room and write songs.

As a songwriter, if you can touch people and make them feel a little less alone in the world, then you've done your job.

I didn't mean to be a songwriter; I just was writing for fun, you have all day to do it. I was homeless so that's all I had to do.

I always wanted to be known as a songwriter and not just a songbird.

My theory is this; I'm not a political songwriter. I'm an honest songwriter.

I realized that I wanted to get better in every way. As a person, as a friend, as a songwriter, as a musician, as an artist, record producer, you name it.

Even in the beginning, when we knew there was a legal argument about how much our song sounds like his song, as one songwriter to another, I wasn't sure that Cat Stevens would take that as bad.

I'm a songwriter first.

I'd hate to be a songwriter starting a career today.

What is qualified? What have I been qualified for in my life? I haven't been qualified to be a mayor. I'm not qualified to be a songwriter. I'm not qualified to be a TV producer. I'm not qualified to be a successful businessman. And so, I don't know what qualified means.

A songwriter writes songs all the time, whereas just writing a song can be done by anyone, anytime.

The business today is completely different and it's very producer driven, so that a songwriter needs to have producing chops, be a singer/songwriter, or find a singer to develop.

I'm not really a songwriter - I'm an interpreter. So in a sense I am an actress first and foremost. I act out the songs, and I lead with my heart.

As a songwriter, I'm not necessarily writing about myself or my life.

I never thought of myself as being a good songwriter. There are a ton of other people that are good songwriters, but I don't think I'm in the club. What I do well is perform, sometimes sing pretty good, and accompany myself well and arrange fairly well.

Writing for somebody else is really fun 'cause I consider myself a songwriter first and foremost.

'Clown' was written when I couldn't find anyone who believed in me as an artist. Maybe those labels will think twice next time a young songwriter comes along.

My brother is an excellent songwriter, and I play guitar and drums.

I wanted to be a blues guitar player. And a singer. And a songwriter. Not a shock jock.

You get a letter from her agency embracing you into the family that says, 'It is our goal now to help you achieve your dream of being a songwriter, in John's memory.'

As a songwriter you have an umbilical cord to the song and it's hard to expand on your understanding of the lyrics. Whereas when you cover a song you can create your own reason why you're attached to it.

Townes van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.

I don't have to compete in the charts. I can just be myself as a musician, a songwriter and play with the musicians that I really love.

I didn't know if it would be a success-ful one, or what the stages would be, but I always saw myself as a lifetime musician and songwriter.

You know, he likes me because I'm his son. I have to go long and far to find someone who knows me just as me, rather than me the songwriter or whatever.

I'm a songwriter, principally, and I was real excited that people liked my songs, but you get a bit of an ego about it.