Famous Quotes & Sayings

Claudia Rankine

It always surprises me when people say that the realm of the lyric is the personal, and the personal is not political. I just don't know how we can get to 2014 and say that with a straight face. When you think of a poet like Yeats, how can you say politics is not in the poem? When you think of Milosz, how can you say politics is not in the poem?

Van Morrison

There's no difference between lyrics and poetry. Words are words. The only difference is the people who are in academic positions and call themselves poets and have an academic stance. They've got something to lose if they say it's all poetry; if there's not music to it, and you have to wear a certain kind of checkered shirt or something like that. It's all the same. Lyrics are lyrics, poetry is poetry, lyrics are poetry, and poetry is lyrics. They are interchangeable to me.

Elizabeth Banks

I only know the lyrics to songs that I listened to between the ages of 11 and 15.

Adam Levine

All I needed to do was sing the lyrics that had already been written. I don't know those guys; they seem kind of kooky and crazy. I like their vibe.

Lorde

It must have been when I was 14 or 15 that I started tentatively writing songs and was able to convey an emotion and a lyric with what I wanted to say.

Victoria Beckham

We've still got the melodies, we've still got the nice 'strong girl' lyrics going on.

Joe Johnson

Back then ... if you wanted the lyrics to a song you had to play it on the record and stop it, and then write it down, then play it again, then stop it,

Emmylou Harris

I have to have a guitar sitting around. I sing in the shower. I sing around the house. The music comes secondary. The lyrics come first.

Boris Pasternak

It is no longer possible for lyric poetry to express the immensity of our experience. Life has grown too cumbersome, too complicated. We have acquired values which are best expressed in prose.

Richard Madden

I have two sisters, so we watched all of the Disney films. I think I still know the lyrics to them all.

David Lodge

Paraphrase, in the sense of summary, is as indispensable to the novel-critic as close analysis is to the critic of lyric poetry. The natural deduction is that novels are paraphrasable whereas poems are not. But this is a false deduction because close analysis is itself a disguised form of paraphrase.

Seamus Heaney

In fact, in lyric poetry, truthfulness becomes recognizable as a ring of truth within the medium itself.

Missy Elliot

I'm not tryin' to come off as the best lyricist.

Mason Cooley

Beauty is lyrical. Ugliness is elegiac.

Harold Prince

Lyrics can't do what they do - or should do - when you're creating a musical with rock lyrics. There's plenty of room for rock musicals, just not all rock musicals.

Rachel Platten

Lyrics are very important to me. I like speaking to women and saying what I mean.

I am always getting ideas for song lyrics and keep a notebook handy. Nowadays, I take a laptop with me everywhere, because I have a stock of handwritten lyrics in it.

Eugenio Montale

This proves that great lyric poetry can die, be reborn, die again, but will always remain one of the most outstanding creations of the human soul.

Natalie Cole

I think people just want to be popular. So they're going to write lyrics that are going to get your attention. You know, sometimes, they're a little graphic, and I don't think that's so necessary.

Jerome Kern

I write music to both the situations and the lyrics in plays.

Gyorgy Ligeti

There is a wonderful Hungarian literature, especially in lyric poetry.

Our songs mean a lot to us. Each lyric is real.

Lil' Kim

Sometimes I'll be driving and a lyric will come into my head, and I will have to pull over and record it on my phone.

Valerie June

Every writer writes in different ways, and so some write the music first, while others write the lyrics first, and some write while they are doing other things, and it is just nice to see how other writers are writing.

Sarah McLachlan

Running is very rhythmic, and I have written a lot of lyrics while out running. It's a very musical exercise, and sometimes I like to sing when I run. Your whole body is doing the same thing.

Leon Bridges

For me, making music just starts with a simple melody, and lyrics will come sometime after that.

Brendon Urie

When you have four people writing lyrics instead of one person, the lyrics are going to be a little more broad.

Bill Callahan

I will concentrate on playing guitar, on lyrics and on singing. I am a part of things; I am not the encompassing 'Smog.'

Harbhajan Singh

It is very disappointing to see the Punjabi music scene of today. The lyrical quality has deteriorated; it is only people like Sartaaj and Gurdas Maan Ji who are sticking to their roots.

Dave Gahan

To go on the road and see people sing my own lyrics back to me is just fantastic.

Wrong emphasis, wrong phrases. I was trying to make the lyrics more difficult, so they can work on a subconscious level.

Robert Webb

I was an usher at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith. You had to watch whatever play they had on 40 times.

The first thing that inspires any song is a chord progression. When I have one I really like, I get into the lyrics even more.