Levon Helm Quotes

As a songwriter, it's very hard to listen to music that's not coming from the heart and soul, personally.

I've always made music from the heart, and that's what I do.

Somehow you can tell the difference when a song is written just to get on the radio and when what someone does is their whole life. That comes through in Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson. There is no separating their life from their music.

I think good music comes from the heart. That's my belief.

When you play music with someone who has a heart rather than playing with someone who is just doing it for money or is cynical it makes all the difference.

That's one thing I can't lose: I can't lose the realness in my music.

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

Maybe sincerity is the new punk. But to me, I think I have to connect with something emotionally, on some level, or I don't care about it. And if I don't care about it, then I don't think anyone listening to it will, either.

I think that people respond to honesty in music, so I only choose songs that are the truth for me.

I want that every piece of art be honest, never mind what it is about.

If you write songs and if you write music that's very sincere and very honest, it's pop music, but it is pop music with a lot of honesty and a lot of heart.

It's amazing that you can listen to any song and you can always tell when there's some substance beneath it and when there isn't. Even if it's poetically written and technically brilliant, I'd rather hear something that's all over the place but has some soul to it.

I feel what I sing, and I sing what I feel. Really, that's all I can do.

That's what I like about Frank Ocean or Bon Iver - they try to capture a feeling in the most sincere way.

I connect emotionally to these songs. I mean what I say when I say it, and that allows your audience to connect. That's the number-one reason why any music is successful, because you make people feel something.

When a singer truly feels and experiences what the music is all about, the words will automatically ring true.

All I try to do is to write music that feels meaningful to me, that has commitment and passion behind it.

Music is something that should speak for itself, straight from the heart. It took me a long time to understand that.

I just try to sing every song with sincerity.

You can play as good as you want, but you have to sing from a place of living.

Music is an expression, a deep-seated feeling.

If you make music with business in your head, it'll show. I make it from the heart. There's a difference.

Self-expression is my goal, I want to be real with my feelings. Singing and dancing and all the joy that goes with performing come from my heart. If I can't feel it, I won't do it.

I wanna make music that I feel proud of when I'm onstage, that I feel like I put my all into.

I think that an actor shouldn't work from a place of fear, because it'll show in your work. You should work from a place of contentment, relaxation, and coming from your heart, and from the truth of yourself.