Curtis Mayfield Quotes

I usually think in terms of music.

I have a curiosity that compels me to find ways to make music that are fresh and new.

My brain never turns off of songwriting. Every conversation, everything I see, I'm just kind of like a sponge and I soak it up.

I'm kind of lucky in the fact that I can take something that's in my head and write it down, or I can listen to a piece of music that somebody else has written and try to tap into what the music's saying and just kind of follow that, you know. I mean, nine times out of 10, I'm just kind of following where the music takes me.

It's always been a gift with me, hearing music the way I do. I don't know where it comes from, it's just there and I don't question it.

In music one must think with the heart and feel with the brain.

My head works in music, so there's always music there.

Mozart would play a counterpart with his left hand while using his right to mock it. It was blue, dark, shadowy - and it made me feel something. That's when I realized music was inside me.

I hear entire symphonies, oratorios, in my head, but I can't write a note.

I never think about rhythm versus melody; I've always just played to what's in my head.

Being a good songwriter means paying attention and sticking your hand out the window to catch the song on the way to someone else's house!

If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.

I do read music, but I prefer playing from the heart.

I try to imagine what the greatest song I could ever write would sound like, and then try to do it.

A lot of my music has ambiguity and room for people to interpret.

I kind of always thought that I had a good ear for melodies. I think in terms of melody. I can just be walking and I'll hear a melody.

Listening to A. R. Rahman as a five-year-old opened my mind to a whole new set of creative dimensions.

This little flute of a reed thou hast carried over hills and dales, and hast breathed through it melodies eternally new.

The composer makes plans, music laughs.

I didn't think I had anything particular to say, but I thought I might have something to say to children.

I remember making up songs in my head.

I play with feeling so I need to hear what is coming out of the amplifier to inspire me; I don't just play mechanically. I need to hear what I am doing in order to create the next note. If I don't hear it then I can't feed myself.

What drives the creative person is that we see it all.

I've always been inspired by small details that make me wander. My mother would ask me, 'What are you looking at so intensely?' I would answer, 'Everything and nothing.' She really supported my wanderings, called me Marco Polo.

Melodic invention is one of the surest signs of a divine gift.