Valerie Simpson Quotes

I'm a songwriter; that's where it starts. I love writing with someone that shares that same feeling of accomplishment. I'll play music for my fans as long as they'll listen, but I fancy myself as a writer first.

When you're an artist, you can only do your own stuff. Even if you only write for other people, you're really more focused on yourself. So while everybody's out touring, I'm working on records.

You have to connect with a song, and when you write it, that connection is already there. It's your baby; your passion is in that song.

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

If my singing leaves a long-lasting effect in the mind of the listeners, it is the blessing of the Almighty.

Fundamentally, our job as songwriters is to sit down and listen.

Elton John and Billy Joel, I find them both to be huge inspirations, those guys are so talented.

Music is something that's so powerful and means so much to me.

George has left in his songs, in the transcendent beauty of his voice, and in the poetic expression of his soul, the very best of himself.

I'm one of the biggest Kid Cudi fans of all time. He's very relatable.

I know when somebody's heard my music. I can hear it in their music.

I was mostly surprised by the rap artists, actually, that were influenced by Sabbath. That was a surprise. But it's very nice and I'm very honored. It's nice to know after 27 years now that what I said in the first place has stuck, and that was the belief in it.

It's a privilege to serve the poor, to be servants of noble Africans, but I better belong in the rehearsal room or in the studio with my band. That's where I want to be and I still wake up in the morning with melodies in my head.

To do it always right, that is what music is to me.

I wanted to feel like an artist for once in my life. I wanted to use other producers for respect, to let them know that I listen to other people's music and that I'm just not out here on my own page.

I'm a songwriter who just wants to bring people great songs.

I write the songs and hand it over to the world and see what happens. But the things that I've written for people that have been hits, I don't know that I would have directed them in the right path, but they definitely wound up on the right path.

I don't know what makes a guy want to write songs and sing, but if you've got a message, you want to get it across. When I come up with an idea about the way I feel, I can really state it strongly in a song.

I try to write like the writers I admire - I rip them off in form. It comes from George Strait and Merle Haggard records, and country music in general is really good at that, the twisted phrase... So I'm always looking for that angle in my own work.

If my career detour from special education to singing has done one thing, it has afforded me the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others.

I've come to understand my role. On some level, I provide the context for them to shine. I also know my role is the steward of the songs, and the center point, the artist that the stuff all revolves around. But I really try to honor that.

I'm just really happy, because I think we're a great band, and I really like great bands.

What I have to do as a musician is do everything that is not on the music.

If you pour your life into songs, you want them to be heard. It's a desire to communicate. A deep desire to communicate inspires songwriting.

I'm realistic about my age and realistic about the fact that there's an awful lot less in front of me than there is behind me. I've always felt that music is an art form that deserves to live the life of the artist.