Tom Jones Quotes

I've written poetry since I was in the first grade, and it wasn't until I was a little bit older that I realized poetry could be put to music and become a song.

I consider myself a lyrics guy.

I fell into lyric writing because of music. I backed into it.

One difference between poetry and lyrics is that lyrics sort of fade into the background. They fade on the page and live on the stage when set to music.

As a lyricist, you love to hear other great lyrics or other great concepts.

I really wanted to work hard on my lyrics.

Lyrics are my racket; music is play - the fluff stuff.

Great song lyrics are as valid a part of American literature as any novel.

Much as I adore the melodies, I choose a song for what it has to say.

I generally, you know, I don't - I don't really scat. I'm - I'm basically a songwriter so you need a little lyrics that rhyme and stuff.

Lyrics are really, really hard, I think, or at least they're really hard for me. Some people can channel lyrics faster. I find them very hard to find, so because of it, they take me a long time, and I really think about them.

I think, with music, I'm a lyricist who talks about real life things.

I love Paul Simon... his lyrics.

They're very different things, a poem and a song, you wouldn't think they would be, but they are.

I'm actually a true lyricist.

I only like songs with strong lyrics.

I think I'm a good lyricist.

I would write poems and think up melodies to them later.

It is still true that it is easier to compose a poem in the form of a manual for adjusting a VCR than it is to write a piece using just tuning as a symphony.

Most people who ask me what's my favorite song, expect that it's 'Midnight Train' or 'Neither One of Us.' But actually, it's always kinda been 'The Need to Be' because of what it says. I love the way that song was written, I love the melody, I love everything about it.

As a lyricist, I'm really trying to raise my level of quality.

One of the hardest things about writing lyrics is to make the lyrics sit on the music in such a way that you're not aware there was a writer there.

As a singer-songwriter, what I do is write about how the human feels.

My favorite music isn't necessarily the songs that One Direction come out with. That doesn't mean to say I don't secretly really love some of our songs, which I do.

I'm not a 'long writer' and have never wanted to write a novel or even a novella. Poetry, like flash fiction, provides a readily accessible canvas to play with. Whether to express an emotion or share a vignette, these forms are often interchangeable.