Tracy Chapman Quotes

I want to use my music to deliver a political message and sometimes to denounce, but I don't want to be a politician.

I try to make my music interesting to me first, then hopefully other people will find it interesting, too.

I think we have responsibilities to be active in the things we believe in, regardless of what our job is. At least in my lifetime, there has been a tremendous combining of activism and music, that came up in the era of Pete Seeger and the Weavers and Joan Baez and Bob Dylan and Peter Paul & Mary.

So the thing is to put out music for music's sake.

I don't feel that as an artist my job is to offer PR propaganda, whether for the good or for the bad.

Art never harms itself by keeping aloof from the social problems of the day: rather, by so doing, it more completely realises for us that which we desire.

Now I am at the point people are believing in my music, I couldn't live with myself if I didn't talk about what I believe in.

I don't like the notion that artists have a responsibility to be political.

What a terrible world it would be if we only did films that were poster boards for political causes.

Don't make music for some vast, unseen audience or market or ratings share or even for something as tangible as money. Though it's crucial to make a living, that shouldn't be your inspiration. Do it for yourself.

I'm just excited that I get to put out the music I love versus music just for the sake of it.

Some of the greatest artists did their best work when they got political.

When I'm writing music, I'm not playing a character. I'm not Alice Cooper or Gene Simmons or someone like that, who has acknowledged that they are writing music for a character.

I have personal beliefs and they are sometimes reflected in the movies I make, but I also reflect other points of view.

The fun thing about song writing is that it's just creative. It can be whatever you want it to be. For me, I'm really protective of that. I'm not going to write something because I feel like it fits here or it fits there - I just want to write music that feels good to me, you know?

I like to make the music that I really love. You're supposed to make your favorite music that no one else played, and I'd like to just keep it at that and not really change it at all.

I never do anything to strictly satisfy a fickle, ever-changing commercial world. I do the music I like to play. It's the only way I feel comfortable existing in the industry.

I think every artist should follow their vision; their hearts is what they need to reveal, not something that society is looking out for. That said though, I think also artists have, continuously good artists, have been good for their times.

I don't think you need a record deal to write songs. You don't need any other reason than you want to do it. It's a far cry from why some people do music today. They make it to order, which is pretty horrible.

The way that I've always gone about making music, the rule of thumb, has just been to make what I love.

It has always seemed slightly uncomfortable, the idea of politicised musicians. Very few of them are clever enough to do it; if they're good at the political side, the music side suffers, and vice versa.

Protest is patriotic. Since the beginning of musical time, American singers and songwriters have used their talent and bully pulpits to show us America's strengths and shortcomings.

I mean, there's a hell of a lot of grounds for protest, but you don't do it through music.

If people would like to come to my concerts I'd love them to come. And if they like the music that I make, I love that too. But I do not make music for other people. I make it to please myself.

I write music to please myself. Hopefully the director's enjoying it too.