Todd Rundgren Quotes

I've always made music from the heart, and that's what I do.

If it doesn't come from your heart, music just doesn't work.

What's the point of a song if you can't be honest?

Somehow you can tell the difference when a song is written just to get on the radio and when what someone does is their whole life. That comes through in Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson. There is no separating their life from their music.

As a songwriter, it's very hard to listen to music that's not coming from the heart and soul, personally.

I think I sound like a fella who's always making a plea through his music. Sort of a plea of sincerity.

I once wrote on my MySpace profile that music is never authentic. It was a reaction to constantly reading the word 'authentic' in connection with bands. But what does that mean? A baby crying after being pushed out of its mother's womb, now that's what I'd call authentic.

I think the best music is honest music.

In my music and my life, I'm honest with my feelings, and people appreciate that. That's just the way I am.

I try to make music with emotion and integrity. And authenticity. You can feel when something's authentic, and you can feel when it's not: you know when someone's trying to make the club record, or trying to make the girl record, or trying to make the thug record. It's none of that. It's just my emotions.

There's a lot of vulnerability in songs - I'm not talking about pop songs - from people that are in the art of songwriting more than the commercial enterprise of it.

Growing up, I was listening to a ton of Motown music, Otis Redding, Aretha, and then there was the Beatles and Led Zeppelin and Janis Joplin. These were all people that I felt as though they truly felt every single lyric they said, and they weren't afraid of imperfection.

All of the technique doesn't matter... only if the feeling is right.

I've been hugely inspired by the songwriting of Lauryn Hill and Tracy Chapman - on their albums, they really tell it like it is.

I think that's my gift in this world is to put experience into music.

I am quite certain in my heart of hearts that modern music and modern art is not a conspiracy, but is a form of truth and integrity for those who practise it honestly, decently and with all their being.

I would hate to make music and people love me for something that isn't me.

You look at Michael McDonald and people like that; I think they just tried to write music that was true to themselves. That's our bottom line. Whatever people view us as, I think as long as we try to create good music that will win out in the end.

For a creative writer possession of the 'truth' is less important than emotional sincerity.

An actress must be a woman whose emotional perceptions are true, and to make them so, she must have a fine contempt for any art or thought that betrays them for something false.

Music's supposed to come from the heart. I felt like that if it ever got mechanical, I was going to back away from it.

If you write songs and if you write music that's very sincere and very honest, it's pop music, but it is pop music with a lot of honesty and a lot of heart.

As far as the creative process goes, I always make sure that anything that gets discussed or talked about in the record is true to form. I make it a point not to sing anything that I haven't felt or gone through.

I don't feel comfortable making empty music.

Ralph Lemon is my idol. But music is my biggest passion. Frank Ocean's 'Pyramids' is on repeat. That kind of stuff with Frank Ocean makes me cry.