Tracy Chapman Quotes

I've had a lot of voices tell me what I should be making. Personally, I would much rather live and die by my own hand. If my stuff sucks, then at least I made it suck. I didn't allow some person, some old dude in a suit, to make it suck for me.

People must insist on the right to say no, to be alone, to stand out from the herd. Creative artists can say all this in their own way and in their own field, by hard, rigorous work.

I've never been one to sit back and go, 'I'd better do what the audience wants me to do, because I don't want to lose them.'

I have this original style that I want to show to the world. I don't want to be kind of this beat down, bruise-you-up kind of dude and have Karl Anderson cut all my promos for me. I don't want to have to do that.

I'm certainly not who people think I am. I always do whatever I want to do, and my films are personal to me.

My job is to just express something that I want to express. And if I'm ahead or behind the curve, that's for others to decide.

I'm not entangled in shaping my work according to other people's views of how I should have done it.

I don't like people telling me what to do, or trying to MAKE me write songs.

I can't be a spokesman for anything other than my own concerns. I have to be free to wrestle with my own preoccupations, and if I'm bringing any political awareness to that process, that mitigates my freedom.

I care so much about making things that are useful for people to have and listen to, but I don't care so much that I won't do whatever the hell I want. It's just one of those things.

I have to be able to be the artist that I am.

The thing is, my life is a country song. I don't need to be manufactured, and I don't need anyone to tell me what to say or what to sing.

I never wanted to be a feature - that was never the goal with my music. I didn't want to just live through other people's work.

I've been wanting to produce for some time because I want to have more creative control over the things that I do and not be victim to the whims of other people's desires.

I would never tell someone else how to use their platform, because I think I'm much more comfortable allowing the work that I do to speak for itself.

Trends keep changing, but I have and will always do what I like to do!

I couldn't be an artist who was told what to do, what to be, what to sing.

I don't like being told what to do, and I don't need to be told what my record should sound like.

I always felt like an outsider of the industry, and now I feel quite comfortable as an independent artist.

We got full artistic integrity and autonomy over what we were doing, and that was the main important thing that kept our band alive.

I'm a little bit more proud of Solange. She chose to do it her way. Because in the beginning, we wanted to mold her into this pop star, and that is not who she is. And we were wrong. I was wrong, the record labels were wrong... She wanted to do it her own way, and she did.

My problem is not to reinforce or destroy any ideas anyone might have about me, how I do what I do, what my intentions are, the way that I do it. My only job as far as I can see is to do the music that I want to do. All those other things are completely out of my control.

Can't nobody make you make any music that you don't wanna make. Remember that.

Respect is one of the greatest expressions of love. If other people try to write your story, it means they don't respect you. They consider that you're not a good artist who can write your own story, even though you were born to write your own story.

My work is trying to at least define myself on my own terms, and then if other people enjoy things that's a lovely addition.