My father was a man of love. He always loved me to death. He worked hard in the fields, but my father never hit me. Never. I don't ever remember a really cross, unkind word from my father.
Johnny CashRead
You've got a song you're singing from your gut, you want that audience to feel it in their gut. And you've got to make them think that you're one of them sitting out there with them too. They've got to be able to relate to what you're doing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Authenticity in performance fosters connection between the artist and the audience.
In this quote, Johnny Cash emphasizes the importance of genuine emotional expression in music. He believes that to truly connect with an audience, a performer must convey their inner feelings authentically, making the audience feel as if the artist is sharing an experience with them, thus fostering a relatable bond through their art.
Themes
AuthenticityConnectionEmotionPerformanceAudience
In practice
Example use cases
A motivational speaker might share this quote to illustrate the importance of connecting with an audience.
More from Johnny Cash
All quotes →I start a lot more songs than I finish, because I realize when I get into them, they're no good. I don't throw them away, I just put them away, store them, get them out of sight.
Johnny CashRead
Six foot six he stood on the ground He weighed two hundred and thirty-five pounds But I saw that giant of a man brought down To his knees by love
Johnny CashRead
That was the big thing when I was growing up, singing on the radio. The extent of my dream was to sing on the radio station in Memphis. Even when I got out of the Air Force in 1954, I came right back to Memphis and started knocking on doors at the radio station.
Johnny CashRead
There's no way around grief and loss: you can dodge all you want, but sooner or later you just have to go into it, through it, and, hopefully, come out the other side. The world you find there will never be the same as the world you left.
Johnny CashRead
If you aren't gonna say exactly how and what you feel, you might as well not say anything at all.
Johnny CashRead
Similar quotes
Art is not a democracy. People don't get to vote on how it ends.
George R. R. MartinRead
If something doesn't creep into a drawing that you're not prepared for, you might as well not have drawn it.
Edward GoreyRead
The violinist is that peculiarly human phenomenon distilled to a rare potency - half tiger, half poet.
Yehudi MenuhinRead
One of the things that happens in novels it's almost like a continual debate with yourself. That's why you're writing the book. It's why you create characters: so you can argue with yourself.
Michael OndaatjeRead
Painting picture by picture, I followed the impressions my eye took in at heightened moments. I painted only memories, adding nothing, no details that I did not see. Hence the simplicity of the paintings, their emptiness.
Edvard MunchRead
I think it's important to leave spaces in a story for readers to fill in from their own experience.
Annie ProulxRead