Famous Quotes & Sayings

James Taylor

I'm always making music. I'm constantly making little musical recordings on my phone or on a little voice recorder I carry with me so I can remember these little pieces of music that eventually becomes songs.

James Taylor

In the beginning, there was a kind of energy that - like an urgency to express myself, and the songs just couldn't be held in. But I think it changes, the nature of how that - what that energy is. And I need to court the muse in a much more serious way.

James Taylor

Songs are like myths. Myths are useful because they allow you to cast yourself and your life and your own experience. And for some people, 'Fire and Rain' speaks to them in that way.

James Taylor

I wanted to perform, I wanted to write songs, and I wanted to get lots of chicks.

James Taylor

I've written a number of songs over the years and it's a big part of my life, this sort of tension between a longing for home and the call for the open road. It's sort of like a tug between two families. I even love to miss my home.

James Taylor

It is a process of discovery. It's being quiet enough and undisturbed enough for a period of time so that the songs can begin to sort of peek out, and you begin to have emotional experiences in a musical way.

James Taylor

['Fire and Rain'] is sort of almost uncomfortably close. Almost confessional. The reason I could write a song like that at that point, and probably couldn't now, is that I didn't have any sense that anyone would hear it. I started writing the song while I was in London...and I was totally unknown.... So I assumed that they would never be heard. I could just write or say anything I wanted. Now I'm very aware, and I have to deal with my stage fright and my anxiety about people examining or judging it. The idea that people will pass judgment on it is not a useful thought.

James Taylor

I don't know much about God. But if everything does originate with God, then certainly songs do as well.

James Surowiecki

Pop music thrives on repetition. You know a song's a hit when you've heard it so often that you'll be happy never to hear it again.

James Patterson

Like a good song, life has verses, the goliards had taught me. Each verse has to be sung. It takes all of them to make a song. It is the entire chanson you name, but when you think of it, when you smile, it is a favorite verse that delights your ears.

James Montgomery

Songs of praise the angels sang, Heav'n with alleluias rang, when creation was begun, when God spoke and it was done.

James Mackintosh

Whatever is popular deserves attention.

James Mangold

We're all going to hell for the songs we sing.

Emily Dickinson

Fame is a bee It has a song - It has a sting - Ah, too, it has a wing.

When I'm get­ting ready to per­suade a per­son, I spend one-third of the time think­ing about myself, what I'm going to say, and two-thirds of the time think­ing about him and what he is going to say. -Abra­ham Lincoln Always think of what you have to do as easy and it will be.

Emeli Sande

Songwriting is my main thing. I know that I'll do that for the rest of my life.

Emeli Sande

I was inspired by people like Joni Mitchell and Carole King and Stevie and "Storytellers." People that could really change the world with their lyric, no matter who sung the song, they had still been the source of that message. So that's what I really aim for.

Emeli Sande

I always knew I wanted to be a musician, and I always knew I wanted to write, 'cause the people I was listening to all wrote. I never thought it was an option to sing anyone else's songs.

Emeli Sande

I built a reputation as a songwriter in the industry before my own hits. People were used to coming to me for songs. There were songs like 'Clown' and 'Mountains' that were my songs that I wanted to keep. But the record labels saw me as a songwriter. It was hard to get people to believe in me as an artist.

Emeli Sande

I feel like 'Next To Me' is a great introduction because it's a simple song that has a simple message for me. I wanted to introduce something that lyrically I'm proud of and introduces me both as an artist and as a writer.

Emeli Sande

Any song I have to work on longer than a day, I just leave it. It's not gonna work. Everything that's good is really instant.

Emeril Lagasse

I try to teach my son about sanitation, especially when handling foods like chicken that could be dangerous. I remind him to wash his hands all the time. When my son cooks with me, he stands on a step stool so he can reach the stove. I teach him about safety and fire.

Elliott Smith

I've been doing four-track songs by myself since I was like a teenager, where I'd sing in a way that I ... I just didn't think other people would like it, so I didn't play it for them but eventually I got over that, which I'm happy that I did, because it's kind of a drag to be playing a kind of music that you don't really like as much as another kind.

Elliott Smith

You can take a picture of New York and one person looking at it will think it looks really depressing, frightening; and someone else will look at it and think of all the fun things you can do in New York. I think songs are kinda like that.

Elliott Smith

It's just that a lot of songs that are popular right now, they don't have any meaning

Elliott Smith

So if somebody writes a song that appears to have some meaning then everybody thinks that it's a really heavy song.

Elliott Smith

My girlfriend at the time convinced me to send these songs to Cavity Search. When they wanted to put out my record I was totally shocked.

Elliott Smith

Certain songs just feel a way that's hard to put into words and it's not happy and it's also not really sad but I couldn't say what it is

Elliott Smith

I walked out and Jack Nicholson was sitting about six feet away, so I avoided that area and I looked up at the balcony in the back and sang the song.

Elliott Smith

I think the suggestion that all my songs are personal is insulting because that assumes that I have a bunch of issues that I feel the need to unload on strangers. That is not the case. It also assumes that I just talk about myself the whole time which, again, is not true.

Elliott Smith

I'm just writing songs about how I feel or about how people I know feel.

Elizabeth Perkins

My oldest step-son wants to direct or produce. As far as being an actor, I've already told them they have to wait until they're 18; I won't take them to auditions.

Ella Henderson

From an early age I've written songs and played the piano.