P. J. Harvey Quotes

I was a 10 million-plus selling artist.

I am stuck in the dream of an album that sells well not because of marketing, but because people like the songs.

I have a fan base that some people say is equal to that of signed artists' maybe even more.

To be honest I'd just love to keep writing hits for other people... That's kind of my secret dream.

Well, a lot of our concerts do okay, and I know we still get royalty checks which still isn't that important, but again, I have to just say that we're making our records.

A Grammy is really nice, but having lots of fans is really nice, too. I think just getting a record out is a success on its own.

My aspirations aren't to sell millions of records, but to write really good songs.

I've accomplished enough with the music that I haven't had to go out there and do other things to over-saturate.

MTV made a huge impact. Heavy rotation took you from selling 1m albums to 20m albums, and that meant a lot of dough.

Even an independent label is looking for a hit, they're not looking for a record that's not gonna do well.

When I started playing music, people weren't selling 5 million records. That was not the standard; that was not the focus.

Are there a million people out there who would love a Joey Cook album? I think there probably are.

There are certain artists that get into the little circle in hip-hop, and everybody is talking about them, and they are buzzing. But they can't go out and sell out tours, perform in front of 3,000 people a night, and things like that. We did things backwards; with Visionary, we got all the fans first.

If you look at reggae and dancehall artists in general, there isn't really a big success story. A Shabba Ranks or a Yellowman might have a hit, but there's never a follow up. There's no consistency.

So, my records really didn't sell, but musicians started picking up on my sound and my songs and cutting my songs and that turned into a gold mine.

I just wanna make music that people love. If they love the next project that I put out, 'Thank you' because that means that I can take care of my family.

There [are] times when I put out an album, and I don't hear my songs really on the radio a lot, and it's like, Dang, I ain't inside that world. But I'm still moving some people or touching some people.

It's just a blessing. Artists search and search for songs that will connect for a new artist because the familiarity is so low. People don't know what you look like. It's just so unbelievable to find a song that people are relating to. To have a song that people will actually pick up the phone and call the station to ask. It's a blessing.

People are coming to shows on the strength of one song. I guess that's the way it goes.

I feel happy about the songs I've written. I'm a great lover of the craft of songwriting, and I sure admire it in other people when I see it - past and present. I feel comfortable with what I have accomplished. I feel happy to be able to work in that environment, and that I have a lot of songs left to be written, somewhere.

Without an audience, all your dreams will not come true at all, because you need an audience to write new songs and continue to do music.

If you have a live reputation and your popularity is proven that way, then you're bound to get signed up because they see all those people buying those tickets and they think some of those people will buy those records, and that's what their business is primarily about.

Obviously I've always loved singing and performing, but I fell in love with songwriting and then I enjoyed doing that for other people and getting coached. But then I kind of stumbled into the right group of people that really started to create some unique music for me and what I wanted to say, so then it made me want to be an artist.

I think particularly in music, popularity os a very fickle thing. You're only as good as your last song.

A lot of people, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry and a lot of people have written for other people, and of course Bruno Mars. So I think it's a great way to break into the industry and show people what you can do and show them your talent and people tend to listen a little differently to your own music as an artist, when you've proven yourself as a good songwriter for other artists.