Rufus Wainwright Quotes

I never walk into the studio and say, I'm going to write a song called... 'X' or called 'Slow Me Down.' I write a ton of lyrics, often the title is somewhere in those 10 pages of... I call it brain vomit. It's kind of like whatever comes out of my head and I'm unabashedly just writing it down.

With this album, I tried not to think too much. If I heard a song that I loved, I promised myself I wouldn't over-think it. If I loved it and if I wanted to cut it, I would.

Very often the music comes first.

It's [music composition] the most effortless thing in the world because you don't do anything. I hate to say it like that, but it's the truth.

When writing I just go with the song. I go with the song and try to tell the story. So the story may be "Wonderful Baby", which is a little song. Or it might be a gentle song, "Empty Chairs". Or it might be a rock and roll song like "Prime Time" or "Run, Diana, Run", or "American Pie". I don't know where it's gonna go. I don't have any idea what I'm doing. I just do it. I just keep doing it. I keep taking adva

It's hard to write music for specific things, because I'm always writing just to write.

My goal is to think of nothing when I'm writing a song because too many influences could sabotage a potentially amazing song.

I'm definitely using different parts of myself, but I think when it comes down to words and melodies, I can't really force anything too much.

My songs pretty much revolve in my brain most of the time - usually, whatever's coming next.

Melody is pure intuition. I don't use any thinking brain when I do that. That's totally in the zone.

'Mirage' was an attempt to get back into the flow that 'Rumours' had. But we missed a vital ingredient. That was the passion.

When you're writing with an artist or for an artist, you have to help them serve their vision. That's the cool part about writing songs. There are no rules.

It takes me, like, half an hour to write the lyrics for a song. They just come out.

I just write a song, and it just comes out however it wants to. And some of them are catchy songs like 'Here Comes The Sun,' and some of them aren't, you know.

I just really need to sing and sing and sing and not worry about writing. Just by singing for pleasure, your voice takes you to what it wants to sing. And that is how the best stuff kind of emerges.

Some of my writing is very subconscious, and that's definitely what happened with 'Body Language' - I looped some basic bossa nova sounds and just started singing.

I wouldn't sit down and work at writing a song like a novelist or something.

I can't play an instrument to save my life. But when I'm creating, and when I'm making music, I feel like I'm the head of the orchestra, and I'm just waving my wand, and something is created.

When we were putting together 'One Of Us,' we were just following our impulses and what felt good.

When I'm recording, I usually just mumble and hum a melody and then fill the words in as I go.

I really like writing poetry and lyrics because it's one thing where I give up control. I don't feel like I need to be in control of it. I just sort of let it happen, and then I know when it's done. I know when it's finished.

It's gotta feel natural. I'm always into that, and after awhile, if I am working on a song too long and trying to make something out of it that it's not... it's best just to stop and move on.

When I go into a room to write, it's like I'm not trying to say, 'I need to write a song that sounds like Eric Church or Jason Aldean.' I just try to get the best song that's in the room that day. Whatever style or sound that may be, I'm not afraid to attack it at that angle.

I usually know the general emotion of a song, or the general feeling of it, and then I think I just get so excited by the act of recording. I love that process so much that I feel like if I knew exactly what I wanted I'd arrive at something too soon.

Sometimes when I'm writing lyrics, it's a very loose train of thought, and wherever that takes me, I let it flow.