Toby Keith Quotes

Even when I don't think I'm writing, I'm writing. There's some part of my brain geared toward making songs up, and I know it's collecting things and I know when I get a moment to be by myself, that's when they come out.

I always think I don't have any songs, I don't have anything I'm working on, and I get in the studio and realize there are 20 things I'm thinking about. It's just kind of second nature.

I really don't do concept stuff very well. If I'm sitting thinking about what kind of song I want to write, within a few minutes, I'm kind of bored. It's just a personal thing for me.

I have come up with very creative ideas that really didn't work with the song I was currently composing.

The big problem with songwriting for me is starting a new song. It's the thing where all the anguish exists, not in the writing of the song, but the starting of the new song. What do I write about? I never know.

I'm always writing; my phone is full of ideas - melodies and lyrics and stuff.

Usually one or two things happen: Either you have an idea straightaway - the sort of sound that you want or the instrumentation or one particular sound that you want to feature - or you don't.

There definitely isn't a structure anymore to how I get ideas. A lot of times I'll just write down a phrase, or I'll have an idea that's attached to just a few chords. Other times, it's work.

I try to write down every song that comes to me, even though I know that every song that comes to me isn't a song that I need to sing.

I'll write lines or words in a notepad. You work on little things and little parts; sometimes they turn into bigger songs.

Before I can finish one song, another is knocking on my door in my head.

If I have a talent, it lies in the creative process.

I always have melodies flowing in my head - whether I'm just at home, at the mall, at a restaurant or wherever. I'm always humming along to the random melodies that form in my head. My friends always ask me, 'What are you singing?' and I'll be like, 'I don't know!'

A lot of our songs are based in reality but imagined or using fictional characters as a way to write about something. I think inspiration comes from anything and everything, and it's filtered through our brains, and it comes out sounding like our band.

Trying to write new music is definitely daunting, but I try not to overthink it.

Sometimes, you don't know where your inspiration's going to come from.

Creativity has a lot to do with the main idea. Inspiration is what comes when you are dealing with the idea. But inspiration won't invite what's not there to begin with.

You have 'listeners' ears' when you're just starting out, and your 'listeners' ears' tell you what will work. You lose those ears later, when you break songs down into production elements too much.

I do not 'get' ideas; ideas get me.

Songwriting is a mysterious art. When I sit down to write a song, the end result should be mysterious and have this dark quality.

If I try to write a song, I will completely fail to write a song. But if I'm just holding my guitar and I just start humming, then I'll have a song in an hour.

Inspiration doesn't really work like that - you're not looking out for it. Inspiration is something that tends to capture you rather than you capture it.

There is no formula to it. Writing every song is a little journey. The first note has to lift you.

If I don't have a model in front of me, I don't have an idea.

A theory of creativity is actually just a metaphor. A pool of ideas, a well of memories, a voice.