Rob Reiner Quotes

I love the fact that people can relate to what I'm saying, even if it's not for the same subject I was writing about. That is the power of real music and real expression.

I guess initially I was amazed that somebody would see something within my work that they could really relate to, but the more it's happened, the more people have come forward, I've really realized that we're all kind of going through the same thing at the same time.

If a song's about something I've experienced or that could've happened to me it's good. But if it's alien to me, I couldn't lend anything to it. Because that's what soul is all about.

As a fan, I connect with realness. Whether it's strong or vulnerable, if it's real, I can connect with it.

There's been so much that I've shared with the world, and by doing so, it's helped me connect with others on a whole new level. I love that, as I want people to watch 'Total Divas' and be able to relate themselves to what we go through. My hopes are that they realize we are all in this 'thing called life' together.

I wanted to get people to feel where I'm coming from and connect with people who are feeling the same way that I am.

What I have that's special in my music is substance. It's music that people can really relate to. I know I'm gonna rap something that somebody has already been through in their life, something that they will understand.

I think if something resonates, even if it's surreal, it's because it is relatable and I think that that's a core issue for me.

I think that talking about the personal specificity, personal details, is how you get the big, big audiences - by talking about your relationships or your personal tragedies. If you reach out with that energy, you'll touch people.

Country music busts the wall between performer and audience. There's a connection because there's a vulnerability, a confessional quality, to so much of the songwriting. Those lyrics take you in.

The one thing people like about my show is it's universal. Everybody can relate to it. I think people enjoy going to a show and saying, 'Something like that happened to me.'

When you're watching somebody read your material and they smile and nod, you know you've found that place where your experience and their experience match, even though they aren't the same exact experience.

You've got a song you're singing from your gut, you want that audience to feel it in their gut. And you've got to make them think that you're one of them sitting out there with them too. They've got to be able to relate to what you're doing.

I feel that if I'm going through something, I'm sure someone else is, too.

You want people - I want people to relate to me as a character. I want them to go, 'That could have been me,' or, 'I know someone like that.'

There's no hierarchy in suffering. I think songs that are transcendent are the ones where everyone can feel something from it, you know?

The audience likes a speaker with the same weakness and the same virtues that they themselves have.

When a piece of art gets really specific is usually when anybody can relate to it.

If I love Etta James, it's not just the voice, and it's not just the song, but it's the energy that connects me to her, so if she is strong, I can be strong, too, and if she is sad, I know I am not alone, or if she is joyous, I can connect with that joy.

If I want people to connect to my words and my stories, I need to tell them where they came from. Because then, when you break into song, they have kind of a blueprint for why I wrote that song, so they can come to it with something they went through that helps them connect to it.

My songwriting is personal in the hope that listeners will know that I relate to them.

Sometimes if you can tell one personal story with a lot of sincerity, it can become a universal story.

I hope that my lyrics have a way that they're so specific they become universal, and they go, 'Oh I've been there, I know what that's like.'

A lot of people have told me, you know, that what I've written about, they identify with strongly.

You do try to write songs that you feel like people can relate to and you try to be as honest as you can so that people hear your records and they feel like, "Oh, my god. This is exactly how I feel. I went through this."