Loudon Wainwright III Quotes

I don't really know why an idea comes to me. But all of a sudden, an idea comes and from experience I can intuit what something means when an interesting line pops up. Or I can intuit what an interesting choice might be. And I can try a couple of different choices, and see which one feels right, and then continue the song to see where it goes.

The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.

I'm taking my time with the acting and learning as I go.

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.

Every minute spent worrying about 'the way things were' is a moment stolen from creating 'the way things can be'

Sometimes a song can take up to a year to write, and because I waited that year and waited to work on it that day, it came up that extra 50 percent.

The only way you improve is to try new things.

I think it just has to do with getting older and getting better at what it was I was doing, and that I could take something small and kind of take my time with it. I think actually what that has to do with is I quit drinking. Before that I told myself I could only drink if I was - if I was writing, I had to be drinking. So I was on a timer, because eventually you get too drunk to write.

Don't try to make comparisons between your own pictures. Forget what you have done and think only of making the best of what you are doing.

I'm very much a man of the moment. I can think about an idea for a year, two years, even four years all right, but what ever is going on with me the moment I write is gonna work it's way into the piece.

For me, the more I live, the more I need to write. The more I push myself to really live and really experience things and step outside of my comfort zone, the more the songs are allowed to flow.

Even when I have someone playing the song I give them the idea. I'm learning. I'm getting better over the years.

A man can be wiser today than he was yesterday.

I'm always writing and reflecting on life. I want to suck it all in.

It was like baptism by fire. There was no school for studying acting. You just have to take it upon yourself to learn from your peers. It's about opening your eyes, listening, and watching.

I'm really anxious not to repeat what I've done before, to keep pushing and learning.

If you don't change, then what's the point of anything happening to you?

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

You're always starting with a nugget of truth, whether it's a song or an improv scene.

I don't think we ever really think about it when we're doing it, because if you sort of go in with a plan of attack, it tends to take away the natural rhythm of songwriting.

I read, I watch a lot of movies, I'm constantly living, so I'm constantly having more to say.

I think I have a lot of learning to do, but that's what the game is for.

The most important thing is not stagnating, to keep improving.

There's always things that I can improve on.

I do develop characters for songs, and I think of everything as storytelling, in a way. But I don't plan out what they're going to sound like. I just sing over what I've done.