Amanda Shires Quotes

It took me a long time to learn how to write a good song.

What I realized is that my interest in literature has more deeply structured my practice than I thought.

The MFA program did one great thing for me: It taught me how to be a better reader and critic. Nothing I wrote during my time at Columbia remains - but learning how to really deconstruct a work of fiction - that, of course, is a permanent part of me now.

The second half of the '60s really was a kind of learning period, in terms of writing, for me.

The only piece of advice I've ever given anybody is learn to write songs and write as many songs as you can. Because it's never gonna hurt, and when you run into that problem of, 'God, I don't know what I want to say,' or the opposite problem of, 'I know exactly what I want to say, but no one has written it,' then you can just go write it yourself.

I wasn't a very good writer before college. I don't think I was a very good reader.

Some things lend themselves well to songs, some things don't, and I'm learning that a lot at the moment. It's still a relatively new way of writing. It's only really the last five to 10 years that I've taken my writing seriously in this way, as something I can keep working toward. I think I feel myself much more before as simply a songwriter.

I think technique can be taught but I think the only way to learn to write is to read, and I see writing and reading as completely related. One almost couldn't exist without the other.

I think the cardinal rule of learning to write is learning to read first. I learned to write by learning to read.

The most important thing is to read as much as you can, like I did. It will give you an understanding of what makes good writing and it will enlarge your vocabulary.

I saw I could rhyme words. It came simply to me. But I wrote some pretty horrible songs that I still have on tape.

I guess you could say I've been writing all my life.

Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book.

Read as much as you can, and then sit down and write.

Well, I started writing songs about three years ago when I learned to play the guitar, but I've been singing since I was eleven.

Only a reader can become a writer. Develop a lively intellect and the ability to become interested in anything, no matter how mundane it might seem at first. Look for the story. Develop an eye for detail. Feed your mind and your brain: learn as much as you can about everything you can.

I don't think many of us launched ourselves into the world of writing books fully formed.

I'm still learning my craft, and I've been writing since I was nine.

Ultimately, you've got to have something to say, so a writer should continue learning things throughout life. But I don't think education makes one a writer.

I think writing and reading are completely synergistic; not necessarily in that one has to be a good reader to be a good writer or vice versa, but that they so inform each other.

I always wanted to write. But honestly I'm glad I didn't do it back when I was twenty-five or so, when it's now clear to me that I was a very poor writer and could've ruined my career before it even started.

All through my life, when faced with a difficult decision, I always ask myself - where can I learn more. Make the choice to learn.

I wanted to get better at writing, so I knew I needed to move to Nashville.

For the first three years, when I was writing, I was doing sessions with a whole bunch of different people all the time every day until I met Lindy Robbins, who kind of mentored me. And then, once you find that, all the pieces come together.

I was writing lyrics since I was nine years old, so by age 15, I was feeling pretty confident about my talent.