Laura Nyro Quotes

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

I am always writing music. I have got unlimited ideas because I have been clean and sober for my entire life.

Music is an amazing thing. I don't know if we really think about it the same way we consider a painting an amazing thing. I mean, a painting is, in quotes, imaginary. There is nothing on the canvas when you start; and writing a song, there is nothing there when you start.

In order to compose, all you need to do is remember a tune that nobody else has thought of.

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.

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 don't know that I make a big distinction between the big pieces and the little pieces, because I don't experience them in that way. I mean, by the same token, you're out touring with a band and then you're writing string quartets, and in a funny way, isn't it all the same, in a way? It's all just music.

Writing music always happened for me in periods when I wasn't under the influence of mind-altering substance.

It's rather mystifying when you think about writing songs - where they come from, and how they're born.

I don't write songs, songs write me.

Writing is like making love. Don't worry about the orgasm, just concentrate on the process.

It's a weird job because making music or writing a song is a personal thing... and it kind of has to be. You can always tell when people are faking.

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.

When you can write music that endures, bravo. Until then, keep quiet and study the work of those who can.

When I get an idea for a song it would gel in my mind for weeks or months, and then one day just like that, Ill write it.

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

We all love to sing, and when we sit down to write a song I think it kind of shows itself to us.

No, no, the songs write themselves, almost.

Often I have to move my body in a certain way, like exercising, to begin to get into the right rhythm for writing a song.

Every time I get a script it's a matter of trying to know what I could do with it. I see colors, imagery. It has to have a smell. It's like falling in love. You can't give a reason why.

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

I'm always writing lyrics. I have so many lyrics on so many stray pieces of paper. Everywhere.

A lot of times, I don't feel responsible for the songs myself. But that's my job or my place in life: to keep my search and catch the ideas before they pass me by.

Rap is something you can just throw on the skillet and fry up real quick. That's how it comes to me, my train of thought. It's like getting dressed - I don't have to sit down and stare at clothes, I just pick what I like and put it on. But rock, you gotta put it in the oven and let it bake.

Every time you write a song, you're looking for some sort of perfection, and you never quite reach it. You're always looking for that extra missing piece.