Holly Near Quotes

I want to express myself to feel that what I feel is real. My joy, my pain, my anger.

And I know when I was younger, and still, I always marvel at what I feel is different from what I'm told that I'm supposed to feel.

I want people to understand me as a person with views, not just performing songs.

Before I knew it, I was singing, 'I'm so tired of being alone,' and that's Al right there. From then, my attitude was, 'Let Otis be Otis and James be James. I'm not going to emulate them anymore.'

I'm not really interested in myself in my writing. I can't see myself in the songs, even though I know different parts of me are there.

The most original thing a writer can do is write like himself. It is also his most difficult task.

Love the art in yourself and not yourself in the art.

I feel like I really tapped into a pretty honest emotional place for myself as a lyricist. There's a broad spectrum of emotions.

To be a true artist you have to play the way you feel - not the way others think you should feel.

Anything I've ever said, I certainly was feeling at the time.

I really don't think of my work in terms of a genre. I think of it in terms of what I want to say, what I think is cool, and what I'm good at.

Your real feelings are inside you.

When I was young, I had this contrarian thing, and my music for a long time was an extension of that. I didn't want to entertain people; I had too much vanity to be an entertainer. I think that some layers of vanity came off.

Personally, I feel that in my own work I wanted to look programmed or impersonal but I don't really believe I am being impersonal when I do it. And I don't think you could do this.

I've been telling my students, 'Imitate, imitate.' And they say, 'Well, what if I plagiarize, or what if I'm not original? I want to be myself.' And I always tell them, 'Your self will shine through'... If you allow yourself to feel deeply and honestly, what you say won't be like anyone else.

I'm such a strong believer in making yourself happy. Almost in a selfish way. There are a lot of trends, and obviously you can get swept up into them. But I feel like if you just write songs you love, it can have trap beats in it or whatever's going on in the moment, but you don't stop loving songs.

Sometimes I feel like I used to be a person that liked to express himself a lot and put my feelings out there.

I think it's important to really press on with the song writing and just go with it. There's no code, there's no craft... it's just let yourself shine through your music. If it's meant to be loved and heard, it'll happen.

A lot of times when I'm writing lyrics, I just think about insecurities that I might have and turn them into a scene. Some things may be true, and some things may not.

Luckily, I don't have to be anybody but Yolanda, because people don't expect me to be anything other than who I am. For an artist, it's a great place to be.

The writer needs to react to his or her own internal universe, to his or her own point of view. If he or she doesn't have a personal point of view, it's impossible to be a creator.

I'm sick of being self-referential. I don't want to do any more songs that can be accused of being personal.

I've always written about things that cause me to feel something.

I like to write when I feel I'm the real me.

The best writing really does come from the deepest, most private part of you.