Tracy Chapman Quotations

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

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.

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 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.

Songwriting is a very mysterious process. It feels like creating something from nothing. It's something I don't feel like I really control.

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.

I end up writing about all kinds of things. I never make an attempt to write about anything in particular. I don't have a little list of topics to write about.

Music was never just a hobby for me. I'd pick up a guitar every day to work on whatever I was writing at the time. I would put my ideas in songs the way some people might put them in diaries or journals.

I'm still thinking and hoping there's an opportunity for people to have better lives and that significant change can occur.

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?'

At this point in my life Id like to live as if only love mattered.

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

I dressed up as a veterinarian for a Halloween costume party. I had the lab coat. I got a couple of stuffed animals for patients and put bandages on them.

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

We all must live our lives always feeling, always thinking the moment has arrived.

People's real hopes and dreams can be distorted and misdirected and packaged until you're not sure what you really want or what you even really need.

Maybe it's naive to say, but it almost seems like, in the past, people tried to sell you something you would actually need, like a hammer or a broom or a toothbrush. But now there's this notion that they can sell you anything. And all they have to do is convince you that you need it.

You have to pay attention to the moment and make it the best it can be for you. I've been trying to do that. It's really made a major difference for me. I'm a happier person.

My older sister encouraged me from early on and bought me one of the first guitars I had. She listened to all of the crappy songs that I wrote when I was 8 years old and encouraged me to keep doing it.

So much has happened to obscure the dialogue about race and about gender and discrimination in general, especially where those things touch on economics.

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.

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

I think it's important, if you are an artist, to use your music to stand up for what you believe in.

I think religion played a huge part in Bush's re-election.

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.

If you are living a life that feels right to you, if you're willing to take creative chances or a creative path that feels like it's mostly in keeping with your sensibilities, you know, aesthetic and artistic, then that's what matters.

What does the future look like if the heads of society ask our young people to risk their lives for questionable causes? I think it looks rather bleak.

I don't try to project any image at all, other than the person that I am.

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

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

There are good reasons for being in jail - for protesting.

I may be revered or defamed and decried; But I tried to live my life right.

I'm not sure about anything as far as religion and spirituality go.

The way popular music is categorized and formatted cuts down on everyone's options. And although people don't talk about it, there are a lot of issues of race determining musical categories of what's rock, R&B, or even folk. It ends up restricting creativity.

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

I don't know - I'm not sure about anything as far as religion and spirituality go.

I learn all these things about the record talking about it after it's finished.

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

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.

As you might imagine, I'm approached by lots of organizations and lots of people who want me to support their various charitable efforts in some way. And I look at those requests, and I basically try to do what I can.

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 think of the audience the way I would think of another person: You meet someone, then you take it from there; you see what's interesting to both of you.

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.

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.

With other people, you're always swapping music. Somebody is always listening to something you've never heard. It's a great way to hear all sorts of new things.

I would have liked to have had a little break after I made the record before I started this part of it, but it's best for me to get right into it.

If you wait, I will come for you...remembering your touch, your kiss, your warm embrace. I'll My find my way back to you. Please say you'll be waiting.

Words don't come easily, like forgive me.

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!

Love's a recurring theme through my work.

I'm not sure if the next song I write is going to be about love or a song about a tree.

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.

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

I got a plan to get out of here, I've been working at a convenient store.

Who took away the part so essential to the whole Left you a hollow body Skin and bone.

Now love's the only thing that's free /We must take it where it's found /Pretty soon it may be costly

Have faith in humankind a respect for what is earthly and an unfaltering belief in peace and understanding

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.

Love is hate War is Peace No is Yes And we're all free.

It's time to start all over/make a new beginning.

Why do babies starve /When there's enough food to feed the world /Why when there's so many of us /Are there people still alone

I'll toss my coins in the fountain, Look for clovers in grassy lawns Search for shooting stars in the night Cross my fingers and dream on.

This youthful heart can love you and give you what you need, but I'm too old to go chasing you around wasting my precious energy.

You got a fast car But is it fast enough so we can fly away We gotta make a decision We leave tonight or live and die this way.

Renounce all those material things that you gained by exploiting other human beings.

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

There's a power in words. There's a power in being able to explain and describe and articulate what you know and feel and believe about the world, and about yourself.

So don't be tempted by the shiny apple Don't you eat of a bitter fruit Hunger only for a taste of justice Hunger only for a world of truth 'Cause all that you have is your soul.

We are the spirit, the collective conscience. We create the pain, and suffering, and beauty in this world.

I've seen and met angels wearing the disguise of ordinary people living ordinary lives.