Top 1200 Singer-Songwriter Quotes & Sayings - Page 8

I've learned and grown as a songwriter.

I had already been a young singer. And once, as a profession, I was a young singer, what you would call a soprano in England, but I was an alto in singing Jewish music in bar mitzvahs and weddings and synagogues throughout New York City because, after Israel, New York is probably the biggest Jewish community in the world.

When I sing a pop song, I'm a pop singer. When I sing a country song, I'm a country singer. I've been very lucky to cross over, because by doing that, you can't be pigeonholed.

I'm more of an oldies guy. I'll say this - Michael Jackson, best entertainer of all time. Luther Vandross, best male singer of all time. Whitney Houston, best female singer of all time...and when Teddy Pendergrass says turn off the lights, turn 'em off. That's what I got for you.

Well, the teacher I studied with for nineteen and a half years was a man named Paul Gavert. He was a great lieder singer, so basically Im a trained lieder singer because of that teacher. The teacher I currently study with - since 1995 - is Joan Lader, who also studied with Gavert.

I quit my software engineer job, decided that I would be a singer, and got married. Those days, there were no platforms like the 'Indian Idol.' It was like, you decide to become a singer, and then what do you do? It must have been tough for my wife getting married to a man without a job.

The thing is, I'm not a prolific songwriter.

A great song can make a terrible singer sound good, but a good singer - you put a great song on top of that, you're really in great shape!

I don't think I'm a good-enough songwriter.

You kind of have to have no ego to be a producer and a songwriter.

I think I was born to be a songwriter.

People go, 'Oh, you're another guy who crossed over to country.' I say, name another one. Name one other pop singer who's done what I've done as a country singer. There isn't one.

As a songwriter, metaphor is instinctual.

I'm a record producer and songwriter; I'm a problem-solver.

My only weapon is my pen, I'm a songwriter.

Well, the teacher I studied with for nineteen and a half years was a man named Paul Gavert. He was a great lieder singer, so basically I'm a trained lieder singer because of that teacher. The teacher I currently study with - since 1995 - is Joan Lader, who also studied with Gavert.

My wife, she is so good. She was a famous singer - had a show in Carnegie Hall, did a big city tour for RCA. Then she made the mistake of marrying me. The next year, another tour, but the third year, she had Mario and said, 'Either I'm a mother or a singer.'

I'm a songwriter. Everything affects me.

If you want to be a songwriter, you've got to obsess over it.

As a songwriter, you're allowed to write anything, and as a person, I am all colors in the rainbow. I've been through everything, you know, so I can write a positive song like 'Better Get to Livin'' because that's my attitude. But that doesn't mean I'm happy all the time. You can't be a deep and serious songwriter without feelings. You kinda have to live with your feelings out on your sleeve and get hurt more than most people. The fear I might get hurt means I might not be able to write another song.

At the end of the day, I'm a songwriter.

I'm a songwriter-I'm obligated to keep pushing myself.

I'm one of not even a handful of British Asian popstars who are maninstream. Of course I was always tagged as British Asian singer Jay Sean as opposed to pop R'n'B singer Jay Sean.

In the race for wealth, a neighbor tries to outdo his neighbor, but this strife is good for men. For the potter envies potter, and the carpenter the carpenter, and the beggar rivals the beggar, and the singer the singer.

When I was a teenager, I dreamed of being an opera singer like Maria Callas or a jazz singer like June Christy or Chris Connor, or approaching songs with the kind of mystical lethargy of Billie Holiday, or championing the downtrodden like Lotte Lenya. But I never dreamed of singing in a rock-and-roll band.

If someone asked what kind of music I play, I wouldn't say I'm a folk singer; however, if folk music means music for the people, and playing music to entertain them and share different messages, then sure, I'd like to think that I'm part folk singer.

No, my son's a songwriter and he does that.

I don't mind being labeled as a political songwriter. I've chosen to do that. What really annoys me is being dismissed as a political songwriter. That really pains me, because life isn't all about love; it's not all about politics, either. It's a beautiful mixture of events that absolutely baffle you, and you think, "Why can't I do something about that?", whether those events are in your bedroom, or out there in the wide world. In our daily lives we engage with them at different times, and I'm trying to write about the whole human experience, or my perspective on it anyway.

I'm a songwriter.

I'm a songwriter and I'd love to make that a part of my career.

I think I've been influenced by everything I've ever heard. The first thing I ever heard was my grandma, who was an opera singer. The first song I ever learned was the 'Nessun Dorma' from Puccini's 'Turandot.' My father was a big band singer, so I used to hear him walking around the house singing standards all the time.

I'm a songwriter first.

People would ask me, "what do you want to be when you're older?" and I'd be like, "a singer," and they'd be like, "what do you really want to be?" and I'd be like, "oh, I really want to be a singer."

One of my sisters wanted to be an opera singer. So, we spent a few dollars to try to train her, because Italian people would like to have an opera singer in the family. But she's got trouble coughing, let alone singing. One day, she was in the shower singing 'Madame Butterfly,' three days later the Japs attacked Pearl Harbor.

I'm a songwriter, that's what I love.

I've retreated to what I was originally, which is an individual songwriter.

I was never a topical songwriter.

I'm not a children's songwriter. I'm not in that world.

I love writing songs. I'm a songwriter.

I want to be a producer and not a songwriter.

First and foremost, I consider myself a songwriter.

There's no one songwriter in the band. It's collaborative, and we all have different tastes.

I'd hate to be a songwriter starting a career today.

I listen to music mostly in the evening. I've come to love what is called world music, like the Zimbabwean Oliver Mtukudzi and the Colombian singer Marta Gomez. I also love the Irish folk singer Mary Black. Other favorites include Chet Baker, Eva Cassidy, and Billie Holiday.

Paris Singer had vastly more to do with shaping my character than Mother had; although Mother made innumerable sacrifices for me, and Paris Singer made none. I wanted to be like him.

There's no concession to the fact that Dylan might be a more sophisticated singer than Whitney Houston, that he's probably the most sophisticated singer we've had in a generation. Nobody is identifying our popular singers like a Matisse or Picasso. Dylan's a Picasso - that exuberance, range, and assimilation of the whole history of music.

I had a blast doing it. I mean, I love, love, love my work as a voice over actress and I've been doing it for 15 years, but I've trained as a singer and I am a singer and this is what I've always wanted to do. To get the opportunity to marry these two things that I love so much, it's been a dream, without a doubt. I'm sort of pinching myself still.

Vulnerability can be empowering as a songwriter and storyteller.

I am singing in an operatic voice for the public, to bring something more to Rock and Roll. Because in a Rock and Roll performance, the singer talks to the public whereas in Opera the singer only talks to a character, inside a story. The public sees this as a picture, I want to transport this picture into the room where the public is.

I've had a tremendous career and I get more phone calls from people who've been on 'X Factor' asking how they get on the ships. The ships are a very lucrative job for any singer and I would advise any singer to go and work on them and try it for a while. If you are not good enough, you will not get on.

Being singer is different than being an actor, where you call up sources from your own experience that you can apply to whatever Shakespeare drama you're in. But an actor is pretending to be somebody, a singer isn't. And that's the difference. Singers today have to sing songs where there's very little emotion involved. That and the fact that they have to sing hit records from years gone by doesn't leave a lot of room for any kind of intelligent creativity.

I've always been a songwriter.

Potter is potter's enemy, and craftsman is craftsman's rival; tramp is jealous of tramp, and singer of singer.

I'm not a natural songwriter.

As a songwriter, I got used to being in the background.

I have never called myself an opera singer. Other people do, but I always call myself a classical singer. I'd love to do opera, but I'm still too young and I don't want to do it until I'm ready. I realise that when I do that it's going to be... up for discussion, shall we say, so I want to get it right.

Now, I'm fully aware that there is only one figure more pitiable, more ludicrous, more inherently ridiculous than a bad singer who keeps on singing, and that's a bad singer who keeps on singing because he has issues.

I'm a great songwriter, but I'm not the most talented musician.

I'm not a pop singer; I'm not a jazz singer. And I know I sing like not a whole lot of people do; I also know that a lot of other people act like I do. And better than I do. But what informs the singing is the acting. They're not separate from each other.

I see myself as a songwriter and a poet.