Rodney Crowell Quotes

No matter what you do, it can't be perfect. I told Jack White, 'If I'd 'a sung that song more'n twice, it might of sounded better.' He said, 'Well, it might not of. You might have took the spark out of it.' I don't know if he has a point or not. We'll find out.

Words are the children of reason and, therefore, can't explain it. They really can't translate feeling because they're not part of it. That's why it bugs me when people try to analyze jazz as an intellectual theorem. It's not. It's feeling.

I like a performance, a live performance, so I like little mistakes because that's what makes perfect - the mistakes.

A face in the picture would bother me, so I'd rub it out with the turpentine and do it over.

I don't work out a lead section and practice it for a day and then lay it down. I don't do that. The first time I do something I think is expressive or really cool, that's what's actually on the recording.

If it doesn't come from your heart, music just doesn't work.

I do read music, but I prefer playing from the heart.

The only time I judge an actor on set is if they're not failing; if they get it right all the time, I start to question it. I feel like it's too easy.

With 'HUMBLE.,' I knew that beat was going to capture a moment. It just felt real urgent.

Music is an expression, a deep-seated feeling.

I remember when I did 'Live SheckWes, Die SheckWes,' and when I did 'Mo Bamba,' I one-taked those because it came from my heart.

You know how you're always trying to get things to come out perfect in art because it's real difficult in life

There's a great temptation to clean everything up and make everything more perfect. You have to know when to stop and stop doing it, or you might end up with something that sounds metronomic.

Engineering, like poetry, is an attempt to approach perfection. And engineers, like poets, are seldom completely satisfied with their creations. They notice, even if no one else does, the world that is not quite le mot juste, or the hairline crack that blemishes the structure.

Whenever I start to really think about what I'm playing, I may play it better musically, but the feeling isn't there.

With 'Girls'... I feel like there's an impulse to try to make it look better or neater or more perfect, and when I watch theater, television, movies, it's always the imperfection I'm always more attracted to.

Nobody wants to watch perfection.

Comedy is the ultimate truth. Jazz is hitting the notes that that no one else would hit, and comedy is saying words that no one else would say.

Music is not simply an orchestration of something, but it's also not something as trivial as honesty.

Editing yourself is like an irksome coin toss. You've got to strip yourself of super ego and operate from the id. Maybe I've got my Freud mixed up. It's just hard to trade a beauty shot for the performance with truth and a brightly lit zit.

If there is some art involved, I'd like it to be that it came through the cracks of daily work.

Songwriters tell the truth.

It's amazing that you can listen to any song and you can always tell when there's some substance beneath it and when there isn't. Even if it's poetically written and technically brilliant, I'd rather hear something that's all over the place but has some soul to it.

A song is the most intangible thing in the world.

There's a difference between a pop star and an artist. Pop stars have to be perfect all the time; an artist is allowed, on occasion, to suck. And I put myself in that category because I sometimes suck. I'm not trying to please the masses. It's not going to happen, so I don't try.