Zola Jesus Quotes

Songwriters tell the truth.

In my songs, I'm not saying something that's never been said before. The have lyrics aren't going to blow people away. It's the emotion and the melody that drive it home.

If you can get humor and seriousness at the same time, you've created a special little thing, and that's what I'm looking for, because if you get pompous, you lose everything.

I think it's kind of difficult to write a good Christmas song because you have a narrow framework of references that you have to work within, and at the same time you want to do something that's personally original and hopefully somewhat unique.

The beauty of being a musician is writing songs. That's the best part. It's therapeutic and honest and private.

It's not hard to create a song, but to write a song that's really going affect somebody? That takes a hell of a lot of time.

I started to feel songwriting was pulling different pieces of my heart out - the more I started writing, the more there was honesty.

You can only really sing about what you know; at least, I can.

Most writers write from their own experiences. That is where the honesty and intensity of emotions come from.

When I think of artists I love, like J. Cole, it's the storytelling that grabs me. I want to be honest with my music.

When I make music I try to be as honest as I can to how I experience the world. Like how you arrange a piece of music formally. I tend to observe a lot of chaos or whatever, the fragmentation and melancholy. That's the filter I synthesize my world view with. If I didn't formally have that chaos and it was really linear, it would make my skin crawl.

I've learned by experience that, if I get too clever with lyrics, or if I'm not totally embodying my own wants and needs in the songs, I can't remember them.

I write songs about my own experiences. You can't lie to yourself. You can't pose to yourself.

I do not correct my first imaginings by my second--well, yes, perhaps a word or so, but only to vary, not to delete. I want to represent the course of my humors and I want people to see each part at its birth.

In my music, I'm trying to play the truth of what I am.

You know that I can make hits. You know I can do all these rap records. So, I'm going to start opening up and letting you know my struggles.

If you can't do it with feeling - don't.

The songs that you start to write that you are a little scared of can be the ones that you have to tell.

When I open my mouth and sing, the truth comes out. When I write, the truth comes out. I can't lie. That, I think, is one of the strongest elements of my music. When people talk about my writing as though I'm doing it from an accountant's perspective, it really pisses me off.

My devils and angels, fears and hopes, insights and stupidities, loves and loathings, are what they are. I don't edit them out so much as try to make them interesting - whether I am talking to you, or writing a poem, or joking with my kids, or speaking on television.

Being comedic is a skill, because there is a fine line where the context is important. And being dramatic is just being honest and real in that moment.

I started to write songs. And I started to like what I was writing. I think it's a new way for me to express things that are closer to myself than when I play a role, because, of course, it's really not me. I'm finding a new way. I don't know what it's going to be. But I know that I will need to give it to people one day.

The music is mine. Theres nothing to hide behind. Thats where you see the real person.

I think that, when you're writing your songs, there's always a debate about whether, is that you in the song? Is it not you in the song?

You know what, I just write what I feel.