Mac Davis Quotes

I would always write lyrics and songs on the piano.

Morrissey writes wonderful song titles, but sadly he often forgets to write the song.

As for me, I rarely write a song. But when I do write a song, like "Ain't No Chimneys in the Projects," which came to me at three a.m. one morning, on a whim - I get a percentage.

There's a saying, 'It's easy to write songs, but very difficult to write great songs.' I'm going through that right now.

Growing up in Memphis and listening to all kinds of music and dreaming... So that was one of the first times I wrote a complete song and set it to music and the whole bit. From then on, I was busy with it.

A lot of times when songwriters get together and write a song... somebody will come in with a hook and a lot of times they come out with something that sounds a little crafty.

At the end of the day, I'm just trying to write a song that I like, that I'm not afraid to turn loose on the world. I do read a lot. I know a lot of people who read more, but I do try to keep a book in my hand most of the time, and I think that informs any kind of output that I'm going to have.

I grew up with another pretty darn good writer: Glenn Frey of the Eagles. We were very good friends, and we kind of studied it together.

Making music and writing kind of come from the same creative place.

I often get ideas for songs on the tour bus at odd times. Like at 6am when no one is around, I'd just write.

When I started writing songs at 18, I wrote about 100 that were crap. One was called 'Dog In A Disco.'

I've always loved both writing and songwriting. The journey is fascinating to me.

As a songwriter, I go into the studio, and I just try to write a great song.

My fondest memories are of being hidden away in Scotland or Spain writing and working on songs for Wings.

What I can feel the most and what I can remember the most are the melodies I want to write to.

When I'm writing, I'm focusing more on just the basic melody and the lyrics.

When I'm writing [songs], some days the pen just goes. I'm not in charge and I'm almost listening outside of it. That's when I realize that we all have to start looking at life as a gift. It's like listening to a color and believing that these colors have soul mates and once you get them all together the painting is complete.

I think all of my songs are either based on personal experience or will be based on personal experience, because I do write a lot of songs prophetically.

There's no way to learn how to write a hit song. There's no formula for it. You just have to have it inside of you.

I'm not sure if the next song I write is going to be about love or a song about a tree.

Writing songs always trumps whatever else was on the schedule, it really is the most important and can be so fickle, you have to grab it when it's there.

Writing songs, that's what gets me going. Not the drugs or the sex or the rock'n'roll behaviour, it's the music.

All of a sudden there's a song - there in your hotel room playing your guitar - and you write it, and two or three years later it will come true. It keeps you on your toes.

With writing music and writing songs and recording music and coming up with stuff, you need to kind of reengage that kind of inner child to come up with interesting perceptions.

I'd hear a tune in my head and the words would come. And then, very suddenly it just stopped. It seemed too stilted to try and learn how to write a song, to go to round robins and to learn things from other people on how to write a song. So I just stopped and did other things.