Ryan Adams Quotes

I try to think of the songs as little movies. They're always pretty visual to me. I can always sort of see them. I don't always know what the end result is going to be, and I don't know exactly what it's going to sound like, but I can kinda see them.

I usually know what kind of song I'm after. I know what I'm trying to do when I start. I don't always get there. But I try to visualize what it's actually going to be.

When I make music, it's a very visual thing. Conjures up a lot of images.

Ideas for songs can come from something as simple as a photograph and letting my imagination run wild on an old photograph that I found, or to a film that I have seen or to just most of the time, just daily walking through life and keeping your eyes open.

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

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've already got notebooks full of ideas for new music, so I'm gonna kind of nurture that just like I do all of my ideas and perfect it until it's ready and then I'll just let it go.

I probably wrote three-quarters of the songs without an instrument in my hands.

I've done a lot of albums and I kinda know when I'm onto something that was inspirational for me to record and create, and this was one of those projects where I really enjoyed making the album.

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

Early in my songwriting career, when I was learning a lot about writing songs, I'd force myself to sit down until I came up with something.

A lot of times when songwriters get together and write a song... somebody will come in with a hook and a lot of times they come out with something that sounds a little crafty.

I'm still learning a lot as a songwriter. I try to write down and make a note of ideas that I cross paths with on a day-to-day basis, whether it be a conversation or something I hear on the radio, seeing a movie, or just thoughts in my head as I'm walking down the street.

Songwriting is a burst of inspiration and then a long bit of work and a tremendous bit of desperation.

Sometimes I go in and try to write beats, but I just trash 'em, and then the next time I go in, I'll make like six beats - six legit, nice beats. I'm really particular with how it needs to sound.

Sometimes when you're writing a song, it's work, and you really have to make sure you're kind of pounding out every little piece of it. And then sometimes you write a song, and you turn around and you go, 'How did we do that?'

Songs do write themselves through you; I know people find it hard to believe, but it's true.

I have to be inspired to write a song.

One of the nice things about songwriting is you can be inspired by absolutely anything.

I try to imagine what the greatest song I could ever write would sound like, and then try to do it.

Every time somebody asks me, 'Oh, when you mix your own music, what are you going to make?' And I don't know.

I'm always making tracks. I find that when you make tons of tracks, you stumble upon genius. You can't always turn the drum machine on and right away there's a hot track. Sometimes you luck out. But it can take a lot of time between thinking about the artist, listening to music for inspiration or going to clubs.

You're always thinking about making new music.

It's not that I'm trying to write another '7 Years' or a new version of 'Mama Said.' Songs just kind of come out of nowhere, and you need to catch them when they do.

It doesn't necessarily take four years to write a good piece of music. It might take four hours. It just depends on when your inspiration comes.