David Nicholls Quotes

Music is a very personal and emotional form of communication.

Hopefully when you listen to a song, you can say, 'That's me,' or 'That's someone I know' - you relate to it in a way that's cathartic.

Sometimes there’s no one to listen to what you really might like to say at a certain moment. The paper always listens.

Letters are largely written to get things out of your system.

In a letter (no matter how quickly it is written or honestly or freely or lovingly) it is more possible to be loving and lovable, more possible to reach out and to take in ... I feel I have somehow deceived you into thinking this is really a human relationship. It is a letter relationship between humans.

Music is about expressing things you can't in everyday life.

In a world where irony reigns, where you have to separate, protect and laugh at anything that is honest or has an emotional charge, I bet for catharsis. I like to invest emotionally in things. And catharsis, when it touches the emotional vein, can open the doors of even those who protect themselves.

I find it hard to talk and say things, but I can always sing about them.

Rap helps me connect emotionally.

I always wrote poetry as a teenager and it was always so dark, but it made me feel good to get it out.

You write it down because finally, when it's written down you do get it out of your system somewhat.

Screaming is bad for the voice, but it's good for the heart.

Actors want to act; actors want to emote. It's like the emotional equivalent of tearing your shirt off and screaming to the heavens: you want to express, and you want to be seen to be expressing.

Acting probably saved my life. It gave me a home and a safe place to let out all of my emotions and have it be okay.

Expressing my feelings and then the opportunity to share it with others is just such a gift.

I put my emotions in my music and I want people to relate to that.

When something is bothering me, I write a song that tells my feelings.

The interesting thing about acting is using all your own stuff and having some kind of personal catharsis while you're working.

Generally, all my life, I have had strong friction with life - I was a problematic soldier, I was kicked out of the army, I was in fights. There was something about writing that was a way of experimenting with this emotion.

I have a lot of aggression in me that needs to come out in a not-very-precise or articulate way.

Songwriting is like a therapy, it's a connection that you have with another person, and I'm not scared of it at all for some reason.

My songs are just little letters to me.

In a way song writing can almost be detrimental, because suddenly you find an outlet that is a kind of cheating. You don't need to have direct communication. You can say, 'I can't describe it to you, but I will record it and send it to you.'

In 2012, I started writing songs - not for the world to hear, but for certain people I needed to talk to. My family, we were not big communicators. I had a hard time talking to people in general.

I think I write songs because of pent-up feelings.