Shmuel Yosef Agnon Quotes

My dad had his own business and was extremely busy, but on a very rare occasion, he would play guitar and sing a bit. I was always fascinated by it. I wrote my first song in first grade because my dad was making songs up during those special moments, and it seemed like a fun thing to try myself.

There was a singer-songwriter who slept on our couch for a year when I was about 7 or 8. She used to sing these songs for us, and I loved it. It was magical to watch her.

Nostalgia has always been a key player in my songwriting cause within that space I find a great deal of inspiration.

'You Should Be Here' came from a real place. I lost my father... it was right when I was getting my record deal. There's just been so many moments that he hasn't been here for. It's kind of the reason I wrote the song.

Ever since I visited Paris when I was younger, the sappy side of me really wanted to write a song about it someday.

I think some of the best songs are written in love and then out of love. That's the best time to put something together.

My dad used to play that Paul McCartney song 'Let 'Em In.' That was dope.

I finally got the dad I always wanted and then he left. At 18, 19 years old, I was really upset and had to work through that.

My father's music is all I remember from my childhood.

Your children will smash your understanding, knowledge and reality. You will be better off. Then they will leave. You'll miss them forever.

I miss my mother very, very much.

If you've got a guitar and a lot of soul, just bang something out and mean it. You're the superstar.

I still write more songs about girls than anything else.

I sing songs that I have lived or I write them because I have lived them. I think the believability factor is key.

'They Don't Care About Us' by Michael Jackson - This song makes me want to dance, and I fell in love with it watching 'This Is It' with my kids.

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.

My earliest memories are the best. I always try to remember the good times when Daddy was alive.

My dad and I watched 'Amadeus' when I was 6, and I knew I wasn't going to be an engineer.

Anyone with a heart, with a family, has experienced loss. No one escapes unscathed. Every story of separation is different, but I think we all understand that basic, wrenching emotion that comes from saying goodbye, not knowing if we'll see that person again - or perhaps knowing that we won't.

My father had a passion for love. It's mostly what he talked about in his songs, and I still have his old records today.

I love the fact that I can go out there on stage with a guitar and sing a song that means something to somebody.

As a little kid in a sometimes hard place, I went to the movies as often as I could. Movies - making them, seeing them - is not something that could ever lose its pleasure for me. That puts them on a short list of things that eternally give me joy - love, family, food, movies.

I would like to have seen my sons growing up.

I like to write songs about what's happening, what I see around me and what I hear.

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.