Eric Whitacre Quotes

In my songs, I try to look through someone else's eyes, and I want to give the audience a feeling more than a message.

I always want people to experience the feelings I am experiencing. Anything I can do to get you to feel, that's an honor and a duty that I take very seriously.

Nobody understands another's sorrow, and nobody another's joy.

Those who would make us feel, must feel themselves.

Country music busts the wall between performer and audience. There's a connection because there's a vulnerability, a confessional quality, to so much of the songwriting. Those lyrics take you in.

Feelings are universal, and if an actor's doing his job, I think he's making people sit there, and if it's in a movie or a theatre, going 'Hmm, yeah, I know that... I know that.'

Empathy is the faculty to resonate with the feelings of others. When we meet someone who is joyful, we smile. When we witness someone in pain, we suffer in resonance with his or her suffering.

I think love is the through line and it's universal and it doesn't matter what period of time, time or place, or people, that's something we all connect to. That's the thin thread that I think keeps it altogether.

All I want is for people, when they read my books, to feel companioned, to feel they're not alone in the world.

The true beauty of music is that it connects people. It carries a message, and we, the musicians, are the messengers.

I do believe that music has an intense power to connect us together, to inspire us to become ourselves.

I'm very often still very much alive for that other being and that other world long after the film is finished.

Above all, I try to create an emotion to which others can respond.

When an audience comes to one of my concerts, I hope they'll see themselves, somewhere, in one of the songs.

There's no hierarchy in suffering. I think songs that are transcendent are the ones where everyone can feel something from it, you know?

The blues brings you back into the fold. The blues isn't about the blues, it's about we have all had the blues and we are all in this together.

Basic emotions can be conveyed through anything. As long as you show people that you're human, they'll relate to it.

I've always wanted to sing. I don't think I have a great voice, but I just think that I get the emotion. It's very authentic. Whatever emotion I'm feeling, I can sing it, and you can feel it.

It's a unique thing, and it's probably the thing I love most about songs and music - their ability to connect in a human way.

In terms of helping people understand and know each other a little better, music is universal - universal and transporting.

Music speaks to people in a way that breaks down boundaries that words and actions sometimes can't.

I love that idea that if you know someone's story, it's impossible not to love them. This is potentially hokey but incredibly true, as far as I'm concerned.

Sympathy relies on a common experience. If you're clumsy, you might have sympathy for others who tend to bump into things. Empathy, on the other hand, is the ability to understand another person's feelings even if you've never experienced them yourself.

I just want people to feel what I feel when I hear music that I love.

Music has a way of getting inside all of us and lifting us up.