J. Tillman Quotes

I don't feel any obligation to make my intentions for a song accessible to a listener or an audience. I'm not interested in conveying anything to them so much as what's best for me.

J. Tillman

• Song
• Intention
• Not Interested

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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

• When you're collaborating with somebody, there has to be a spirit of cooperation. There are a lot of times when you just can't persuade someone to write a certain type of song, either musically or lyrically.

  

  Walter Becker China Crisis
  • Song
  • Spirit
  • Cooperation

• 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

• Madonna can still produce a catchy pop song, but she hasn't expanded her artistic vocabulary since the 1990s. Her concerts are glitzy extravaganzas of special effects overkill. She leaves little space in them for emotional depth or unscripted rapport with the audience.

  

  Camille Paglia
  • Song
  • Space
  • Emotional

• We played 'Girl in a Country Song' in front of Scott Borchetta, and he loved it.

  

  Madison Marlow
  • Country
  • Song
  • Girl

• From the stage, I can reach a large audience, and you learn from being on stage how much a song reaches, what extent of the crowd a song can reach. I write in a way that can reach most of the audience, but I also wanted to have truly intimate moments as well, many intimate moments, more so than the big moments.

  

  Keinan Abdi Warsame
  • Song
  • Moments
  • Learn

• I really like Ariana Grande, Jessie J, and Nicki Minaj's song, the 'Bang Bang' song. It's the new 'Lady Marmalade.' So good.

  

  Becky G
  • Good
  • Song
  • New

• I'm a professional songwriter - personal attitudes have nothing to do with writing a song.

  

  Sammy Cahn
  • Writing
  • Song
  • Professional

• 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

• 'Float On' was a fine song, but I was still writing the lyrics on the last day we were working on it and deciding if it was something we wanted to put on the record.

  

  Sir Isaac Brock KB
  • Writing
  • Song
  • Day

• When I first start writing a song, I usually write the title first, then the song, and I'll sing the song in my head and think of a visual of the song. If I can't think of a visual behind the song, I'll throw the song away.

  

  La'Porsha Renae
  • Writing
  • Song
  • Start

• 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

• Nothing can stop a great song, so just keep songwriting.

  

  Manika
  • Great
  • Song
  • Stop

• I've had writing sessions with people, but I've never had one where you're just there, and you start making a song, and then it's too good to be true that something really cool will come out of this.

  

  Camila Cabello Fifth Harmony
  • People
  • Good
  • Writing

• I try to tell a story musically in a song.

  

  Barry White
  • Song
  • Story
  • Try

• 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

• There's a certain power in vague language, but I started to get more into the idea of really trying to have a discrete thought in the lyrics and to have songs that were about stuff - to try to make things more coherent.

  

  David Longstreth
  • Song
  • Language
  • Certain

• I always tell my wife, 'If you're ever looking for something to put on my gravestone, put down, 'He was an honest man, and he never held a grudge.'

  

  Doug Harvey
  • Wife

• When I did the first edit of Les plages, it was very dry and very square in a way. I was just saying the minimum. I said, Well, if this is the minimum, I don't make it. So I tried to make it more refined. I tried to find images, allegorical images, that I could use to express things that I didn't want to say or didn't want to show or I was not able to find how to show.

  

  Agnes Varda
  • Said
  • Firsts
  • Able

• Sometimes you wonder, do referees understand the game of football?

  

  Roy Keane
  • Football
  • Sometimes
  • Wonder

• I don't feel any obligation to make my intentions for a song accessible to a listener or an audience. I'm not interested in conveying anything to them so much as what's best for me.

  

  J. Tillman
  • Song
  • Intention
  • Not Interested