John Lee Hooker Quotes

I just get an idea and then all of a sudden I've got a song.

John Lee Hooker

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Quotes to Explore

• You can't try and make something you think someone else will like. You can only make what you like. How can you make a song that Yo-Landi Visser likes? You don't know me. You'll never understand me.

  

  Yolandi Visser
  • Think
  • Song
  • Know

• I used to watch 'Top of the Pops' when I was a kid and say 'Yeah!' or 'Boo!' at every single song. So there was nothing in the middle. You brutally put it on one side or another.

  

  Damien Hirst
  • Song
  • Single
  • Kid

• I think the line is where you're in the studio, you're creating. That belongs to you as an artist. Nothing should taint that. I shouldn't be thinking about what the fans want, I shouldn't be thinking about what the radio wants, what the label wants, what your manager wants, a song for the chicks, a song for the street.

  

  Talib Kweli Black Star
  • Thinking
  • Song
  • Artist

• As a songwriter I hate this whole, 'If it's a sad song, it has to sound like a sad song thing.' And that goes all the way back to my days with the Format. I'm an insane narcissist, so if I have to get something off my chest, I'll get something off my chest.

  

  Nate Ruess Fun.
  • Song
  • Hate
  • Sad

• If at noon you sit down and there's just silence or blank tape, in an hour if you have a song, that didn't exist an hour ago. Now it exists and it might exist for a long time. There's something empowering about that.

  

  Eddie Vedder Pearl Jam
  • Time
  • Long
  • Song

• We never thought 'Say Something' would be a holiday song. I'm still surprised that it's resonating at this time of year. Maybe that's why it's working so well - it balances out all the joy.

  

  Ian Axel
  • Time
  • Why
  • Song

• I wrote my first song when I was six or seven, a silly little song. But I used to write poems in high school - not songs.

  

  Rachel Platten
  • School
  • High
  • Song

• People say, 'How does having kids change your writing? Do you see the world through their eyes?' No - you just become a faster songwriter... In the old days, you'd be like, 'Oh I'm gonna work on this song for a few days.'

  

  Eddie Vedder Pearl Jam
  • People
  • World
  • Work

• The first album I ever bought with my own money was 'Ten.' Every single song reminds me of my childhood.

  

  Aaron Paul
  • Money
  • Song
  • Single

• Personal relationships are usually my biggest inspirations for writing my songs. The best way for me to write a song is to visualise the story in my head, and I start humming a melody, and before you know it, a song is born.

  

  Nadia Ali
  • Writing
  • Song
  • Best

• I like finding that common point between another song and my music. It's like between people; you can be of religion or another, from this country or from another country, but we're all basically the same. It's just the same with songs.

  

  Yael Naim
  • People
  • Music
  • Country

• If I waited for inspiration every time I sat down to write a song I probably would be a plumber today.

  

  Barry Mann
  • Song
  • Inspiration
  • Plumber

• The buzz you get when you're playing a song and everyone is screaming and dancing and what have you and singing along is incredible.

  

  Aaron Johnson
  • Song
  • Singing
  • Everyone

• It usually takes me 20 to 90 minutes to write a song because once I start, I don't stop. If I start writing a song, and you try to have a conversation with me, you're a bad person.

  

  Halsey
  • Writing
  • Bad
  • Song

• Sometimes videos make a bad song very tight.

  

  Thebe Neruda Kgositsile
  • Bad
  • Song
  • Sometimes

• One of my favorite albums in the world is Bruce Springsteen's 'Nebraska.' Each song has this very distinct character who has something profound to say.

  

  Abigail Washburn
  • World
  • Character
  • Song

• To write a love song that might be able to make it on the radio, that is something that is terrifying to me. But I can definitely write a song about that chair over there. That I can do, but to sit and write a pop song out of the clear blue sky, that is very difficult and I admire the people that can do it.

  

  Barry Manilow
  • People
  • Song
  • Write

• Religions have always stressed that compassion is not only central to religious life, it is the key to enlightenment and it the true test of spirituality. But there have always have been those who'd rather put easier goals, like doctrine conformity, in place.

  

  Karen Armstrong
  • Life
  • True
  • Religious

• I was probably 7 years old when I started playing the guitar and writing some serious songs.

  

  Dolly Parton
  • Writing
  • Song
  • Serious

• I was paid to read Western economic texts. In a way, the regime paid for their own undermining.

  

  Vaclav Klaus
  • Way
  • Economic
  • Own

• Geniuses come in many shapes and colors, and they often run in packs. If you can find one, it may lead you to others. Collaborate with geniuses. Send them your spells. Look carefully at theirs. What could you do together? Combination is creation.

  

  Aaron Koblin
  • May
  • Together
  • Look

• It's a cliche, but Americans are puritanical. In their movies, they are scared of sex, but they overindulge in violence. I could have cut a G-rated version of 'Y Tu Mama Tambien' that would have pleased the American ratings board, but it would have been five minutes long.

  

  Alfonso Cuaron
  • Long
  • American
  • Violence

• When depicting Asian people in movies, books, and television or as historical figures, it's more important to humanize them and give them all of the dimensions of humanity, and that includes sexuality. Ascribe the human the full range of human qualities.

  

  Alex Tizon
  • People
  • Important
  • Humanity

• I just get an idea and then all of a sudden I've got a song.

  

  John Lee Hooker
  • Song