Chris Cornell Quotes

I'm kind of lucky in the fact that I can take something that's in my head and write it down, or I can listen to a piece of music that somebody else has written and try to tap into what the music's saying and just kind of follow that, you know. I mean, nine times out of 10, I'm just kind of following where the music takes me.

To me, music shouldn't be ego-driven. When you go out on stage and play songs, it is. But when you're sitting in a room, writing songs, it's a completely different process. It's a completely different place. It's a creative place, a musical place. It has nothing to do with who likes what.

I usually write my music on a piano, and I really enjoy performing that way, because that actually shows how the music was in my mind before it actually became an electronic song.

Before you can make good music, you just have to shut up. Then the music can say what it has to say.

I think that the process of making music is a hard one to describe as well.

I tend to explain my songs.

Is it not the business of the conductor to convey to the public in its dramatic form the central idea of a composition; and how can he convey that idea successfully if he does not enter heart and soul into the life of the music and the tale it unfolds?

It's a big plethora of music floating around in my head all the time, and I'll sit there and write a song.

We influence singing but never really songwriting.

You're just playing, playing, playing, and then an image or something will come into your mind, and basically you're just narrating it with music, letting it move along.

I am a musician. I didn't know I would be so when I was young. I do know that I have always heard music in my head that I wasn't hearing somewhere else and I 'needed' this music. And obedient to the laws of nature, I created into this vacuum.

Ultimately, I'm a fan of music. I describe writing music sometimes as hieroglyphics, like, you know, excavating, gently brushing off these artifacts and discovering the song underneath it all. It seems as if it is already written in it.

Ornette Coleman is a real musician. He takes all of the things he's thinking about in the world - which is a whole universe upon universe - and translates this into music.

Artists who write songs... what they're going through usually comes through in their music.

It is all about being open and paying attention to the music in your head. I think most people have original music playing in their heads from time to time.

I'm not really a songwriter - I'm an interpreter. So in a sense I am an actress first and foremost. I act out the songs, and I lead with my heart.

I'm always looking to create new avenues or new visions of music.

You need to be different and stand out. You need to have a message. For me, it didn't come easily. The best advice I was ever given, though, is go away and write 100 songs. You need to find the music that's you.

Performing written music, even when I've written it, is not very interesting to me.

I find that, maybe because I'm also a singer, I hear music in characters all the time, even if they don't sing. I hear what affects me in my heart.

You have got to make new music, that is the way that I look at it anyway.

Whatever I hear in my head is what I play.

I write music visually.

Music is always a part of my characters' make-up.

Music is supposed to be inspired.