Henri Frederic Amiel Quotes

I can't be bothered anymore about giving songs titles.

I definitely like the oddballs. There's a song called 'Little Thing,' which is the only song that I have recorded that has no words. And it's the one that I get past my critic inside me.

You wind up creating from silence, like painting a picture on a blank canvas that could bring tears to somebody's eyes. As songwriters, our blank canvas is silence. Then we write a song from an idea that can change somebody's life. Songwriting is the closest thing to magic that we could ever experience. That's why I love songwriting.

Nature is garrulous to the point of confusion, let the artist be truly taciturn.

If a composer could state in words what being a composer means, he would no longer need to be a composer.

All artists dream of a silence which they must enter, as some creatures return to the sea to spawn.

When you can write music that endures, bravo. Until then, keep quiet and study the work of those who can.

The void yields up nothing. You have to be a great poet to make it ring.

and half of learning to play is learning what not to play and she's learning the spaces she leaves have their own things to say and she's trying to sing just enough so that the air around her moves and make music like mercy that gives what it is and has nothing to prove she crawls out on a limb and begins to build her home and it's enough just to look around and to know that she's not alone up up up up up up up points the spire of the steeple but god's work isn't done by god it's done by people

The best songs just come unasked for. You don't have to think about them. Summer is a good time for songs.

One of the few things I know about writing is this: Spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book, give it, give it all, give it now.

Write even when the world is chaotic. You don’t need a cigarette, silence, music, a comfortable chair, or inner peace to write. You just need ten minutes and a writing implement.

In creating music you are the writer, the director, the producer, you create it from scratch. Obviously in playing a role in a film, you take guidance and put your trust into the director. You come into it and you really trust people.

When I write my music I see all the rivers flowing... sensual, spiritual, religious, animal, intellectual.

Each time a dancer moves devoutly or a composer faithfully searches the silence for the veiled melodies, eternity is engaged.

A work of art comes out of a state of deep stillness.

Morrissey writes wonderful song titles, but sadly he often forgets to write the song.

There are only a few notes. Just variations on a theme.

I'd written a lot of songs with hummingbirds in them. None of them ever came to anything, but I did write a few lines last month. It went like this: 'Listen to the hummingbird whose wings you cannot see. Listen to the hummingbird, don't listen to me'.

We talk too much. We should talk less and draw more.

I focus on the words and then I have fun putting together the music after.

I have a horror of silence while I'm writing. It's like the universe is howling at me if I don't have it.

The movie industry is one big collaboration. Music gives me that freedom to create things straight from my heart and my mind.

There are so many rules in the art world. I don't like rules and I break them all the time. I don't care if people think I'm overexposed. What I care about is if I'm going to run out of energy. Overexposure is only a problem if you are drained of energy and cannot come up with new ideas. Every artist has to recognize that and know when to stop for a moment.

It's a weird job because making music or writing a song is a personal thing... and it kind of has to be. You can always tell when people are faking.