Michael Jackson Quotes

I do not know who sings my songs / Before they are sung by me.

I'm not the sort of chap who can sit down and write music. When it comes, I'm happy.

I'd never take any credit for David's music - that's all his.

I have no shame in making music that maybe, if you listen to it long enough, you'll realize you've heard this or that part of it before. I'm still very excited by an amazingly written song, so that's really the thing that I work on when I make records with people.

How does a person create a song? A lot of it is being open to encounter and to be in touch with the miraculous.

Out of my entire annual output of songs, perhaps two, or at the most three, came as a result of inspiration. We can never rely on inspiration. When we most want it, it does not come.

Songwriters can’t explain. You get an idea and you don’t know where it’s come from. And if you’re lucky, you have a pencil or pen and can write it down.

When I start writing songs, and they come easily, I'm always very suspicious. That usually means they're reminding me of something I've already done before. When the songs become unsettling, and I feel anxious about what I'm doing, that usually means it's going to be more interesting later on when we actually record the stuff.

There's nothing like the eureka moment of knocking off a song that didn't exist before - I won't compare it to sex, but it lasts longer.

Authors from whom others steal should not complain, but rejoice. Where there is no game there are no poachers.

I love originating shows and originating songs - there is nothing better than being the first one to get to do a song.

I can't legislate a song into being; it just will not happen for me.

I live a normal life. But I'm always thinking about what I'm going to do next, musically. 'Do I need a fresh producer? What was Peter Gabriel doing when he was 32?'

But inspiration? - That's when you come home from abroad and are asked: Well, have you found inspiration? - and fortunately you haven't. But the impressions sink in, of course, and may emerge later: None of us has invented the house; that was done many thousands of years ago.

I'm a writer who likes to be influenced.

No, no, the songs write themselves, almost.

Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.

The creative act amazes me. Whether it's poetry, whether it's music, it's an amazing process, and it has something to do with bringing forth the old out into the world to create and to bring forth that which will rejuvenate.

People ask what was the first piece of music I wrote. There was no first piece.

Only a bad artist thinks he has a good idea. A good artist does not need anything.

A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.

I don't think I really invented anybody. I have drawn on real life.

Composers shouldn't think too much - it interferes with their plagiarism.

For years, I was watching other people have so much fun playing out their version of authorship, like Louis C.K. and Larry David. As I watched them do their thing, I began to pine for the days when I had a lot less expected of me and, often, a lot more creative freedom. The courage that those guys have is always captivating to me.

As I've matured as a songwriter, I realize that if it's out there, it's mine.