Annette O'Toole Quotes

I'm never happier than when I'm being creative, whether that's with Coldplay or other artists. I just love being in the studio.

I'm still learning a lot as a songwriter. I try to write down and make a note of ideas that I cross paths with on a day-to-day basis, whether it be a conversation or something I hear on the radio, seeing a movie, or just thoughts in my head as I'm walking down the street.

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

I love working and writing new songs. But sometimes you need to wait, to have something in your mind, and then you can let yourself play music.

I'd never written a song before 'The Blood'; I didn't know it was going to be a song.

I've never sat down and tried to write something for some occasion. You just write the tune and stay totally wide open to everything. It'll find the person or persons who are supposed to do it.

I find it very difficult to compose when I'm not playing.

My songwriting process, and maybe loads of other people's, is just this sort of smashing together of emotions and stuff to make some music. It's kind of simple and really complex at the same time and, as you can see, incredibly hard to explain.

The actual writing of a song usually comes in the form of a realisation. I can't contrive a song.

To write a love song that might be able to make it on the radio, that is something that is terrifying to me. But I can definitely write a song about that chair over there. That I can do, but to sit and write a pop song out of the clear blue sky, that is very difficult and I admire the people that can do it.

Lyrics are coming to you all the time. I get inspiration in the middle of the night.

I enjoy songwriting. It's slow-motion improvising.

Anyone who writes knows that ultimately the majority of your time is spent alone in a room with a piano or a guitar, no matter what the project is.

When I'm stuck for a closing to a lyric, I will drag out my last resort: overwhelming illogic.

I'll never forget when me and Jason Matthews wrote the line, 'Don't be a tape player hater,' in 'Country Man,' I don't think I ever laughed harder. We didn't know where we were gonna put that in a song, but we knew we had to make it into a song. I just remember laughing and being so proud of such a goofy little line.

I was a very romantic, overly dramatic young lady, which served me well as a songwriter. Especially as someone who had to focus on lyrics and melody, because if you're a dramatic and romantic person, lyrics come easy, and you turn every single short-term relationship into the biggest 'Romeo-and-Juliet' story ever.

I'm not the best person at putting words together. I can't give you the melody. But I might inspire somebody.

Literally wrote 'Starboy' in 30 minutes.

When I'm in a songwriting phase, it's a phase. I don't just suddenly feel inspired and then write a song, because I always write with a co-writer.

I stopped writing lyrics down on paper after me and Jay-Z did 'Money In the Bank.' They're something I just hold in my mind.

As a songwriter, you always look for guys that you can write good with. Show up, have an idea, knock it out of the park.

It was actually working with Kendrick Lamar that pushed me further into the act of songwriting, specifically.

The words that I'm most happy with are the ones that come from my subconscious rather than my conscious. They just feel right. I think that's the same with music, really. If you're doing an album, there's ten or eleven sets of lyrics, so you get to the point of inspiration ten or eleven times - it's difficult.

'Finally' actually started out as a poem. I always wrote poetry, and pretty soon I figured out that if I could write poems, I could write songs.

The best way to write a song is to think of something else and then the song kind of creeps in.