Patty Griffin Quotes

I realized that there was much more to my voice than I'd ever been led to explore and that I could make my own songs.

I just really need to sing and sing and sing and not worry about writing. Just by singing for pleasure, your voice takes you to what it wants to sing. And that is how the best stuff kind of emerges.

If you're writing, you're starting in private. It can really be this amazing, private, freeing experience. Forget that it's for other people - that comes in later.

I realized I was tired of singing about trees and flowers. I wanted to sing about real life. From then on, nobody could tell me anything was better than blues.

It just felt like the right time to focus on solo material.

Rather than trying to create an audience, just try and create music that feels good to you.

I knew exactly what to do in The Seekers but I didn't know what it would be like to be a solo artist.

Every now and then, as a composer and producer, it's important to write music for yourself.

Music was never an obligation for me; from a very young age, I understood it as a moment of freedom where you could express yourself. I realized how much joy it could bring and how much that meant to me.

I just worked my own personal thoughts into my music, and just kept at it until I found a way in.

In my opinion, anybody can sing. If they have a voice, they must sing.

I love photography - I fell in love with photography, I think, because it was my own thing, it wasn't something I needed other people's permission to do. So, it was really freeing for me actually to be able to not be a famous person and just to take pictures.

The solo album is really my way of branching out and doing my own thing. I'm mostly known for playing other people's music, so this is a way to just do something that is purely from my heart and my creativity. So it's really exciting.

The 'Remnants' EP was the first time I got to really explore myself as a producer, and I got the insane idea of doing it on my own in my future career.

Singing was a liberating experience for me.

I got to try things that I might've been uncomfortable doing if I had been in a larger setting with a studio and producers looking at me.

I realized that I had things in my head not like what I had been taught - not like what I had seen - shapes and ideas so familiar to me that it hadn't occurred to me to put them down. I decided to stop painting, to put away everything I had done, and to start to say the things that were my own.

When you're just using words, you're limiting yourself to everyday casual speak. As soon as you start to sing, you can unlock the stuff that's underneath.

There is no right or wrong way to tell a story. You have to find your own way. You can get your idea from listening, looking, or imagining. Stories are everywhere. All you have to do is pay attention.

Jazz is neither specific repertoire, nor academic exercise... but a way of life.

You know how they say, "Find your voice"? That's your voice, in your pajamas. And it doesn't mean that you're going to publish it or print it or people are going to see you in your pajamas. It just means you are going to construct the foundation in your pajamas, in that voice.

Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer.

Make sure that everything you produce and create is organic to you.

To sing you must first open your mouth. You must have a pair of lungs, and a little knowledge of music. It is not necessary to have an accordion, or a guitar. The essential thing is to want to sing. This then is a song. I am singing.

It's impossible to just come up with one thing that I could say to the world. That's why I've spent my life in the pursuit of the opportunity to sing to it. Summing it up goes against what fuels me.