Jason Mraz Quotations

Music is a weapon in the war against unhappiness.

Two halves don't make a whole. Two wholes make a whole. In my relationship, I was giving myself away to make the relationship better, but in actuality, wasn't doing better by doing that. I became less of a man.

I try to acknowledge both the sacred and the silly in my work. That goes for the live show as well. If I find myself in my head or dwelling in seriousness, I think of my friends back home and how they'd be laughing at me.

My strength was in singing and songwriting, which was a new discovery for me when I was 18. And I decided if I pursued songwriting, which is what was closest to my heart, then there would be no competition. I would just live my life being myself and living my dream.

There's a certain feeling of giving, a certain feeling of generosity in love songs. When you sing a song of love, you're actually giving something to yourself, too. You're singing and casting these affirmations of love out into the universe.

I recently read that it's the left brain that does all that calculating, and the right brain that does the poetry. Somehow I've veered way towards the left. I've been doing it for years. Maybe I do art to balance it out.

I'm trying to be more of a gentleman.

As an American citizen, one has to vote. If we don't vote, we're not doing our part. We'll become some sort of oligarchy.

Well, I've been happily supporting myself for ten years now on the hustle and trade of live entertainment. I guess my breakthrough moment was when I decided to go for it once and for all.

I'm totally into new age and self-help books. I used to work in a bookstore and that's the section they gave me, and I got way into it. I just loved the power of positive thinking, letting yourself go.

Well, my view before was a Western view, and I certainly understand marriage equality and civil rights, equal rights for all, but having visited developing nations and some of the poorest nations in the world, I realize how deep it goes and how much work really needs to be done to create equality for all.

You come to realize that only one person can tell you what's expected of you, and that's you.

You can't live the rest of your life carrying a pain because your parents couldn't get along. I choose to spend my life crafting a joy.

But my strength was in singing and songwriting, which was a new discovery for me when I was 18. And I decided if I pursued songwriting, which is what was closest to my heart, then there would be no competition. I would just live my life being myself and living my dream.

It's from being melancholy and having my human down experiences that I learn, that I overcome, that I transform - and these realizations I put into song. That's what I choose to put in my backpack and carry with me around the world.

I don't think love is a tricky issue at all. Love is best understood when we share: Share time, energy, food, resources, insights, information, whatever. It's usually thought of as something that exists between two people, but that's just because it's easier to see and feel in the space between them. Each person is sharing a lot with the other.

Surrender to life itself and you'll just be rewarded with so many things. And I've been rewarded so many times, in so many mysterious ways. So I have no reason to be disappointed with anything.

If I'm in a relationship, that girl gets showered with letters from the road. I pour my heart into it.

I've always enjoyed singing and can't recall a time in my life where I wasn't singing. I'm most grateful for the strength I have in that department. I have a lot of bad habits on the guitar which limits my playing ability. But I get a little better each year.

When all of us are acknowledged as the human equals that we really are, there will be no space left for bullying. It will no longer be wrong to choose one thing over another.

Careers can disappear just as quickly as they're made, so I'm in no hurry.

Everything in life influences my music. I've always used songwriting as a means to share what I think is profound.

In my relationship, I was giving myself away to make the relationship better, but in actuality, wasn't doing better by doing that. I became less of a man.

If you're a new artist, practice your art and share it. Set up shop somewhere, whether it's a street corner or a coffee shop. I got my start in a coffee shop that didn't even have live music. I wanted to play in coffee shops that did have live music, but I didn't have an audience.

It's easier to write from my own life, and it's also more fun. I always write about relationships, for instance, whether they're romantic relationships, friendships, encounters... there's always a lesson to be learned from them.

I meet people every single day who have heard the music and incorporated it into their lives. I feel like I have a tribe all around the world.

We want people to see us live before we continue on and call ourselves recording artists.

'Yes' is the mother of all positive words, next to 'love.' Maybe 'love' is the father of all positive words.

When I finished performing 'I Won't Give Up' for the first time, I opened my eyes, and I think there was maybe six people in there when I started, and when I finished there was about 30 people, all standing around with their jaws dropped in complete silence. I said, 'Okay, I think this song has some power to it.' So coffee shops work for me.

What I'd love to do is work with kids in the U.S. to raise their awareness and encourage them to be global citizens. We're all connected these days; we can listen to the same music as kids all around the world and share our ideas.

Singing and music was my only talent. I've been blessed with this talent. I'm quite pleased with how it all came out,

If we did, I haven't heard about it yet,

I didn't want to recreate an old song, like Missy (Elliot) or Madonna. The black-and-white ad has become an American tradition,

I have an amazing social-media wing man who manages my Facebook fan site. All my blogs get copied there. My e-mail in-box exploded, and I don't have that kind of time. My mom and sister have their whole life on Facebook, and I'm not there.

I have a very awesome seat in the house every time I play. When the lights come up, and the sound turns on, I'm playing for a roomful of human beings. And geographical and political borders just all dissolve. And we unite through rhythm inhalation. I mean, I'm so grateful that, you know, audiences around the world connect to English music.

Growing up as a singer, and a cast member, and now as an adult, a songwriter, I get the luxury of choosing the kinds of songs that I want to sing, because I'll write, you know, hundreds of songs. Even though only 12 appear on the album. That's 12 that I've chosen to sing of my catalog.

I encourage the players to simply feel what they feel and relay that on tape. The outcome was brighter than I could have ever imagined.

For me to create an album of 12 songs, I've got to write about 80 songs. Half of those are totally weird and rubbish. But I get to some really good stuff after a while.

I get my most creative sort of energy after a show. So I love to go back to the hotel and compose new material. Generally in a rush, exactly. I have to get it out somehow, otherwise I can't sleep, you know.

I always think of the live show first, where the song is gonna go in the show. That's why they aren't sad songs. When I play, I want to make people happy, not sad. It's such a pleasure for me to do what I do, and I want other people to feel some form of that pleasure, too.

He was the first to break it down for me. 'Dude, you're Mr. A-Z. Alpha through omega.' I appreciate it, Jupiter Dave,

I was lucky that way. I always held on to it and appreciated it, ... The songs on this album were more personal and I really wanted to sing them.

I think it's important and I think it's true that our life experience is going to be about our attitude, our thoughts, our beliefs, our speech and our actions. We can transform our life experience simply by changing our language.

I think it's important to earn your fan base and not just try to immediately advance to the top. If you ride to the top quickly, you're liable to fall as quickly. Take your time. It's a long journey ahead of you as an artist. There's nowhere that you're supposed to be other than right now living inside of your art.

I think when I'm 40, i'll look like 25. I'm still look like I'm 18 right now.

I think these days, new artists have a tendency to try to cut corners.

Steven, my friend who came out to me my senior year, was a huge Madonna fan. So I may know all the words to 'Bedtime Stories,' 'Erotica,' and a few more of her albums - and we may have watched 'Truth or Dare' a thousand times.

My whole career began because I was always putting my music on the Internet. By the time I had my first tour, I had an audience everywhere I went, because people were listening online. I started with a website, Jasonmraz.com, pre-YouTube. You could e-mail me directly, and I would send you a CD.

I think our storytellers - our songwriters should be great storytellers, and they should be mountain climbers and explorers, because music is something that can cross all different borders.

We got there around 7:30 a.m., the kids got in the room around 9:30, did their warm-ups, recorded, and by 11 they were on their way to algebra, ... They were probably the most professional element of the entire album-making process.

When you sing a song of love, you're actually giving something to yourself, too. You're singing and casting these affirmations of love out into the universe. It resonates in your body in a way that feels extraordinary.

Tonight, Not Again: Jason Mraz Live at the Eagles Ballroom.

There's still a lot of great songwriters out there who hand in songs. And there's a lot of brilliant singers and performers out there who sing other people's words. I enjoy doing both.

There's not much cooking in our household. We do a lot of raw food, so it's more about putting the right ingredients together to create something scrumptious.

I started with a website, Jasonmraz.com, pre-YouTube. You could e-mail me directly, and I would send you a CD.

I've been making demos at home for many albums now. So over those years, I've learned how to record music, and I love being at home. I excel when I can make things at home.

I've played Madison Square Garden and Jones Beach several times, but I personally don't enjoy those larger venues. I much prefer theater or a performance space.

I've asked to go back into theaters and smaller venues because to me, in smaller venues I can really demonstrate my commitment to quality. Theaters are great containers for music.

I've always been a jeans and t-shirt kind of guy.

Thanks to 'I'm Yours,' I'm probably set for a really long time. The pressure I put on myself, or what I hope my 'I Won't Give Up' does, is to make a difference in people's lives... With 'I'm Yours,' I got to go out and set my feet on different continents, and expose myself to different cultures and causes.

Professionally, I want to keep playing music; I can't escape that.

A rescue mission doesn't involve going in and just taking a child and leaving. You can't just choose any child at random. Every kid has a case that is based on that child's original family. So, we made it over to a village, found the child; we were interacting with the child.

Anytime someone uses one of my songs for anything - a ceremony or a sacred moment - that, to me, is a high honor. I'm proud of the song at that point because I'm trying to write something for humans - whichever humans want to get on board and put this in their soundtrack to their soul's development or spiritual lives.

I want to know why we exist and what I can do while I'm existing. Basically. it's learning how to exist, wholely, consciously. Growing up on fast food and television shows, you can easily forget to exist. You can even be treated as if you don't.

I'm actually no longer a strict vegan. I don't hang out in the cheese section - I don't even eat cheese. I don't drink milk. But every once in a while I'll have an egg. I'm going to eat eggs that come out of my next-door neighbor's farm, that's just the way it is.

I love getting to bounce around and explore so much. I love Scandinavia. I love Spain. It's so mystical and romantic, yet it's gritty.

In Buddhism, they say attachment to anything only leads to suffering. So when we laugh, it's our way of saying, 'I'm unattached to that.' You're tickled by it, it makes your lobes do something on their own. So humor is very important to me. I always take that to the stage first.

I'm just a student at all of this. I'm not trying to teach anyone, ... In an educational system all students are supposed to be equal. I'm just trying to be an equal.

'I'm Yours' was written effortlessly in about 20 minutes' time, and I honestly thought it was more of like a kids' song, and I didn't do anything with it for years.

I had a gig in Sweden. There were thousands of people there, and when I launched into 'I'm Yours,' they were all singing along. It was as if I was singing the Swedish national anthem. I was stunned.

In one of my songs, I say fame is nothing more than loving someone. So I'm grateful every day that there's so many fans of people out there that love my music and feel they're connected to me through that.

I guess my music career is my personal life. You know, I've always been a writer who wants to write about my experiences. And so this experience being added to that, I - I want to live extraordinary experiences. And when I give advice to people, I want it to be sage advice.

By the time my children are born, I know it's possible that they can grow up in a world where they don't understand that there were ever any dividers between people and why we have the issues we do today. That's my goal in this life.

I didn't know if I had the music for it or if I could pull off the larger concert experience. Then I realized if I can just continue to be myself, I'll be all right.

You come out of a store and they give you seventy-five cents change or something, rather than drop it I would always place it in the community. Sometimes I'd flip it into the hat of a busker or give it to a homeless person. But what I most enjoyed was putting it on a windowsill or on a bench seat or somewhere where I knew that the community would get it.

As things grew for me I felt like I was losing myself and wanted to stay true to myself as well. I didn't want to lose any connection I had with the audience. I felt small on a big stage and I felt like I was peaking generically to an audience.

Music is such a powerful fundraising tool and it's so easy for me to share that and it's such a light.

In a song you can shine a light on a topic and with your voice at a concert you can shine a light on an actual issue or a person, you can acknowledge whatever you like with music and people will listen.

It makes me feel great, knowing my songs are being heard and of service to people.

I still go through stages of wanting to try other trades. When I was young I thought I'd be a magician. And then a cartoonist. Or a professional roller-skater. But there wasn't much support for those on career day.

My memory is not so good so my most memorable show is the last one I played. Songs are written with intention but they only emerge in the moment.

Yoga makes my day better as I am less likely to fall victim to my otherwise foolish & forgetful mind.

Stress is the result of not listening to your heart. If you ignore it for too long, and surrender your power to someone else, your chest will explode with panic. I take plenty of time for me.

In my lifetime, I want to see humanity start being conscious of our waste, the things we buy, and how we can reuse and recycle things. I want people to live harmoniously with our planet. I hope everybody wakes up and appreciates life.

Being out in nature inspires me as a writer.

I like to sit in front of the computer, going through files of music, and recording the final vocals, guitars and what- nots. But the windows are always open and you can hear the crickets, birds, chickens, and even the sound of rain hitting the studio. The farm is a great place to hang out in, learn from and create music.

When I play with the full band, you get to be larger than life, you feel larger than life, and that particular moment in the song where there's passion, you've got nine guys behind you, all driving that sound and that feeling with you. That's like surfing a huge wave, because once you start you really can't stop it, you got it going down a huge mountain...

Creating the record is like digging up the earth, planting your seeds and waiting to see what happens.

Through my years as a writer, I've learnt how to simplify the message and pen songs that have a more specific quality - it's not just about my ego and trying to meet girls.

When I first started, my message was about joy, but I didn't really have the vocabulary and life experience to fully deliver it.

When you choose to be a loving person, it's magical how love comes back to you and brightens someone's day, changing your mood and that of the world.

I love getting a smile out of my girlfriend - that makes me feel like I'm seen, or heard.

The foolish idea that my music can actually make a difference in someone's life - that right there is proof that it's working. It makes me feel great, it really does.

I feel like I write the same album every time but each time I try to convey the message more simply.

I get tired of the same albums, the same look and singing the same songs. When I get bored I paint, I plant trees and just do something different. I get far away from singing.

I have always wanted to do an acoustic record from the very beginning of my career. I was a coffeeshop artist where everything I did was acoustic.

I was raised playing music in coffeehouses and I feel that was the foundation for my career. I think it is important that we remember where we came from.

When you play a smaller, more intimate venue, you can have real conversations with your audience, take risks, and stay current. You can also change the set list, on how the day feels or how the audience reacts. When you do arena shows, every arena looks and feels the same. You can't see who is in the room.

I get my most creative energy after a show, so I love to go back to the hotel and compose new material. I generally do it in a rush. I have to get it out, otherwise I can't sleep.

I love surfing and bodysurfing. I love getting slammed by the waves - that makes me feel alive. The waves are a good reminder that I'm small and fragile.