Rodney Crowell Quotes

I started out writing poems before I figured to put melodies to them and play the guitar. Somewhere, there's a book out there on all those early songs and poems. I hope no one ever finds it. I don't think it's my finest work.

In a way, I created Utopia as a platform for me to become more of a guitar player and less of the kind of balladeer that people were taking me for.

I've never considered myself a lyricist, but I have stuff to say.

I've also become much more the musician I've always wanted to be.

Well, I started writing songs about three years ago when I learned to play the guitar, but I've been singing since I was eleven.

I sang a lot as a little girl and entered competitions. I loved singing in choirs, but it was as I got older that I really found my voice.

In high school, I would secretly play Joni Mitchell songs all the time. That's when I started singing and playing at the same time, and I got really into doing that.

I've grown from being around other singers. I've learned not to be afraid. A part of that is from writing my own songs and discovering how to tell my own story properly.

I feel like we're constantly getting better musically, and more of what's in my heart and head is coming through.

My music's matured so much, I don't have to create any barriers.

The thing that separates Sophie from the music I do for other people is that it's 100% written by me. In the past, I've written my songs and then asked friends if they could record the vocals. I didn't want to use my own voice, because other people have much better voices. I was hearing the music with a voice that I don't have.

I always had wished somebody else would sing my songs, but there wasn't anybody who knew them, so I sang them myself and eventually became a better singer and guitar player.

I was writing tons of music in my spare time. I might be on location somewhere, and I'd go home and I'd have my guitar and my little keyboard or something and write music. Or if I was at home, on my piano. I've always been a late bloomer with a lot of things, just in general, so I think this was something that needed to come to fruition in this particular way.

Some things lend themselves well to songs, some things don't, and I'm learning that a lot at the moment. It's still a relatively new way of writing. It's only really the last five to 10 years that I've taken my writing seriously in this way, as something I can keep working toward. I think I feel myself much more before as simply a songwriter.

I sure love to write songs, but I'm not so sure of my voice.

I had this voice when I was in high school, except nobody thought much of it then. I developed it by imitating singers I admired - Alison Moyet, Boy George, later on Nina Simone.

For me, learning how to sing was just like learning how to speak.

Music is all about creativity.

I want to get better and take more risks. I need to sing with other people. I need to access parts of me that aren't being accessed in the Cocteau Twins.

When you're young and starting out, a lot of artists think they know exactly who they are. There are others who come out in someone else's skin. They learn to take it off bit-by-bit and work out the core of what they're trying to say.

Song-writing in general, and vocally I've learnt a lot about myself. I want to get better and keep learning.

I didn't know how to play guitar until I was 21, but from the moment I was good enough on guitar to even put one song together, I kind of billed myself as an artist.

In music, I don't think there's any need to be an all-rounder and do everything yourself. Play to your strengths, and do what you feel. Or do whatever the material itself demands. In this case, I felt like it would benefit from me singing, and I wanted it to have that sound.

I never saw myself as the classic singer/songwriter who sticks to his guitar.

One day a long time from now you'll cease to care anymore whom you please or what anybody has to say about you. That's when you'll finally produce the work you're capable of.