Tupac Shakur Quotes

I got a song called 'All That I Got Is You.' I wrote that from the heart.

I think all of my songs are either based on personal experience or will be based on personal experience, because I do write a lot of songs prophetically.

You can't write a song out of thin air you have to feel and know what you are writing about.

I can still write blues songs because I remember everything.

I do write songs about love but I don't really know love that well.

Sometimes I write from personal experience, but so much depends on what mood I'm in. If I'm in a good mood, I'll write happier songs.

I think that if you have a strong narrative, if the idea of the song can be boiled down to the basics, it won't change that much.

I think that, when you're writing your songs, there's always a debate about whether, is that you in the song? Is it not you in the song?

Of all the songs that I've written since I was 15 or 16, every song is different every song is special, it happens in a different way and I like that.

I only write about stuff I know. I don't have a lot of experience with boys and stuff so I write a lot of songs about interesting and strange subjects that people wouldn't write songs about.

Every person I've met has influenced my songs.

I'll let the record [Who You Selling For] speak for itself. I don't want to get too in-depth with my personal opinions of it and where the songs came from because I think it messes with the listener to know the inside mindset of the writer. For example, I watched a Pink Floyd documentary the other day, and I learned that "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" was about [frontman] Syd Barrett. I didn't want to know that!

I like sitting in the dark and watching people far more talented than I'll ever be sing my songs and say my words. It's thrilling.

I'm inspired to write songs in many different ways - it can come from a melody, a word or phrase or something I have seen on my travels around the world. It's one of the great bonuses of my job in that I get to meet so many people and experience different cultures and it would be hard not to be inspired.

As a songwriter, your songs are, in a way, like your children - you want them to be appreciated.

My job is to write songs that have emotional meaning to me.

Just because you've written a song doesn't mean that you have pulled through. There are definitely songs where I embodied someone else's pain and that was purely to serve the listener because I knew they needed to hear something. But most of the good stuff comes from my life.

If some event happens and it seems really important to me and moving to me, I'll write it down in my lyric book knowing that it will come out in a song.

I relate to all of my songs and I'm inspired by everything going on around me. Music comes from all different aspects of my life.

Most of the really good songs are dead true. ... It had to have happened to have the song be there. Every time I've tried to make stuff up it just kind of falls flat. So the majority of my work is something that happened to me, I saw happen to someone else, or a friend of mine told me happened. There is a certain amount of theatrical and poetic license. People are supposed to like it, that's why you're doing it. It's supposed to be fun. It's not brain surgery, it's heart surgery. They're just songs.

It's easier to write songs when you're single.

I have a song I wrote called “Autobiography.” I came from a very intense living situation, with having a parent on drugs and not having a lot of money. So I always want to talk about the real things. But I think 90 percent of my music, I want it to be 'feel-good music'. I'm already recording tracks for my album, but when it comes time to actually say, 'this is the album,' I may be in a completely different space than I'm in right now.

I write songs from the point of view I had at a time;I'm not tryingto write songs from a young person's point of view.That only ends in disaster.

When I'm trying to write a song for someone else, you can only see anything through your own eyes.

As a songwriter, you're allowed to write anything, and as a person, I am all colors in the rainbow. I've been through everything, you know, so I can write a positive song like 'Better Get to Livin'' because that's my attitude. But that doesn't mean I'm happy all the time. You can't be a deep and serious songwriter without feelings. You kinda have to live with your feelings out on your sleeve and get hurt more than most people. The fear I might get hurt means I might not be able to write another song.