Tracy Chapman Quotes - Page 2

As a child I spent a lot of time at the library.

Consume more than you need This is the dream Make you pauper Or make you queen I won't die lonely I'll have it all prearranged A grave that's deep and wide enough For me and all my mountains o'things

I picked up the guitar at 11, but even before then, I was writing songs on the organ.

I found myself in the middle of a race riot when I was about 14 years old, and I found someone pointing a gun at me and telling me to run or they'd shoot me.

The songs are not necessarily autobiographical. A lot of songs are a combination of influences. It might be some part of my life, or something I've felt, or something somebody's told me. It all comes together.

I meet people in my daily life, people who seem to experience some change and some growth on a personal level, and that gives me hope.

Growing up in Cleveland, I learned about singing from my mother, who had once sung professionally and who admired Mahalia Jackson and Aretha Franklin.

I think many people would say that writers like Stephen King have hypergraphia.

I really love playing music with other people. It's more fun to be on the road with others. It's kind of lonely out there when you play on your own!

We have more media than ever and more technology in our lives. It's supposed to help us communicate, but it has the opposite effect of isolating us.

I don't want someone to squeeze me, that might take away my life. Just want someone to hold me, and we'll rock through the night.

I never assumed I would have that commercial success, so it was a total surprise. And honestly, I never assumed that it would ever happen again.

Some things remain fragments, just the lyrics and melodies or a line or two or a verse.

I'm never sure if I'll ever write another song, what the song will be about and if what initially sparked the beginning of a song might complete it.

After it's finished, sometimes I can trace a path that goes back to the possible source of inspiration.

I see some recurring themes: things that feel threaded together, some symbolic references, and songs about some of the big questions, like death. There are a lot of references to weather, too!

I love living in California and being able to go to the beach or go to the woods.

Love's a recurring theme through my work.

A lot of kids spent more time out of school than in, but I always loved school and thought it was my way out of Cleveland, and out of poverty.

Everyone is looking for connections between the songs. I don't usually approach a record as a concept. There's no overriding theme I'm trying to represent. It's all about the individual songs.

When you feel like you've had a good show, you go backstage and you talk to yourself about it, and if you have a bad show you talk to yourself about it.

My old man's got a problem, he lives with the bottle.

I often write either really early in the morning, or really late at night.

Men are able to sustain a career into their 50s and 60s and still present themselves as sex symbols. With women, on the other hand, people say, 'Why doesn't she retire?'

As a child I always had a sense of social conditions and political situations. I think it had to do with the fact that my mother was always discussing things with my sister and me - also because I read a lot.