David Longstreth Quotes

Songs give you incredible opportunity to convey a tremendous amount in a relatively short period of time.

I love telling a story through song. It helps me take it to a deeper place.

I see magic in conversation and words, and music is purely speaking to others, isn't it?

I love the art form of songwriting. I get to carry a lot of vibes to a lot of people. My songs are all about the human condition, and people will be able to find themselves in my songs.

I just try to tell a story with a song, and be able to try to transmit the emotion to you. That's all I'm really trying to do.

If you're singing, you're telling a story. So to tell it and tell it right, that's it.

Not all poetry wants to be storytelling. And not all storytelling wants to be poetry. But great storytellers and great poets share something in common: They had something to say, and did.

Of all those arts in which the wise excel, Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.

I don't know what makes a guy want to write songs and sing, but if you've got a message, you want to get it across. When I come up with an idea about the way I feel, I can really state it strongly in a song.

In the world of words, the imagination is one of the forces of nature.

You wind up creating from silence, like painting a picture on a blank canvas that could bring tears to somebody's eyes. As songwriters, our blank canvas is silence. Then we write a song from an idea that can change somebody's life. Songwriting is the closest thing to magic that we could ever experience. That's why I love songwriting.

Music is the soul of language.

If you pour your life into songs, you want them to be heard. It's a desire to communicate. A deep desire to communicate inspires songwriting.

When I think about my new CD, the word 'joy' comes to mind. I sincerely hope that each listener will feel the earth, spirit, and aggressive creativity emanating from this album.

Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.

Lyrics are kind of the whole thing; it's the message. Something might have a beautiful melody but if it's not the truth coming out of your mouth, it's not appealing.

The dance can reveal everything mysterious that is hidden in music, and it has the additional merit of being human and palpable. Dancing is poetry with arms and legs.

I like words. Words are places, rooms, distant airs, thin and tropical. They make us feel and imagine we are more than our bodies.

Songs are life in 80 words or less.

I loved words. I love to sing them and speak them and even now, I must admit, I have fallen into the joy of writing them.

I feel that people really feel they've got a part of me when they listen to my albums and the themes just show themselves.

I'm happy to be a writer - of prose, poetry, every kind of writing. Every person in the world who isn't a recluse, hermit or mute uses words. I know of no other art form that we always use.

I love the power of words - no music or special effects - and I want to demonstrate that power.

The thing about hip-hop today is it's smart, it's insightful. The way they can communicate a complex message in a very short space is remarkable.

Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars.