Keep it in tune with the times, but don't write with the specific purpose of trying to create a hit. If you're doing it strictly to make money, you're crazy. There are easier ways to make money.
Dorothy FieldsRead
A song doesn't just come on. I've always had to tease it out, squeeze it out. 'No thesaurus can give you those words, no rhyming dictionary. They must happen out of you.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Creativity requires effort and cannot be found in external resources alone.
Dorothy Fields emphasizes that the creation of art, such as songwriting, is a deeply personal and labor-intensive process. It cannot simply happen spontaneously or be derived from external aids like dictionaries; rather, it is a product of inner inspiration and personal experience.
Themes
CreativityArtSongwritingInspirationExpression
In practice
Example use cases
In a songwriting workshop to encourage participants to tap into their feelings.
More from Dorothy Fields
All quotes →A song must move the story ahead. A song must take the place of dialogue. If a song halts the show, pushes it back, stalls it, the audience won't buy it; they'll be unhappy.
Dorothy FieldsRead
Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, start all over again.
Dorothy FieldsRead
Grab your coat, and get your hat Leave your worry on the doorstep Just direct your feet To the sunny side of the street.
Dorothy FieldsRead
Similar quotes
The only time I have a good hunch the audience is going to be there is when I make the sequel to 'Jurassic Park' or I make another Indiana Jones movie. I know I've got a good shot at getting an audience on opening night. Everything else that is striking out into new territory is a crap shoot.
Steven SpielbergRead
She drinks pints of coffee and writes little observations and ideas for stories with her best fountain pen on the linen-white pages of expensive notebooks. Sometimes, when it's going badly, she wonders if what she believes to be a love of the written word is really just a fetish for stationery.
David NichollsRead
Chess is no whit inferior to the violin, and we have a large number of professional violinists
Mikhail BotvinnikRead
I decided at 40 I was wasting entire chunks of my brain and didn't want to blow my one chance on Earth. I'm glad I made that decision. Writing is largely about time, while visual art is largely about space. Sometimes, as with film, you can hybridize, but I think it's basically the space part of my brain wanting equal footing with the time part.
Douglas CouplandRead
As I grew steadily more comfortable in the kitchen, I found that, much like gardening, most cooking manages to be agreeably absorbing without being too demanding intellectually. It leaves plenty of mental space for daydreaming and reflection.
Michael PollanRead
If you focus your energy on the camera, it takes away from the time you have to focus on the performances.
Spike JonzeRead