Quotes on Singer-songwriters

You can go out and find ways to make your own record and get it out there now. If you really want to, you can be heard. Keep things simple. Learn to go out and play solo. That's a really really good thing to learn, if you're a singer-songwriter. Don't be dependent on a band because you may not always be able to afford one.

I see love in black and white. Passion in shades of “gris”. But when it comes to you and I, color is all I see.

All we do as songwriters is rewrite the songs that have impressed us till we find our own voice. It's part of learning the craft.

If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one.

It's a folk singer's job to comfort disturbed people and to disturb comfortable people

I don't consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin.

When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.

Compassion is an action word with no boundaries.

There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.

My new year's resolution: Never be afraid to be kicked in the teeth. Let the blood and the bruises define your legacy.

We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. We are monkeys with money and guns.

Wanting to be someone else is a waste of who you are

I always saw myself as a singer-songwriter, a solo-artist, that's why working with other artists was never satisfying for me.

The future hasn't happened yet and the past is gone. So I think the only moment we have is right here and now, and I try to make the best of those moments, the moments that I'm in.

Truth is everybody is going to hurt you: you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.

My heart is broke, but I have some glue, help me inhale and mend it with you.

But life is just a party, and parties weren't meant to last.

Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you're living?

The Voice There is a voice inside of you That whispers all day long, "I feel this is right for me, I know that this is wrong." No teacher, preacher, parent, friend Or wise man can decide What's right for you--just listen to The voice that speaks inside.

Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear.

I'm sure I would have been considered a more significant artist if I was a singer-songwriter. It's just not the way I roll. I love being a curator and a musicologist. People write me letters and thank me for turning them on to Fred McDowell and Sippie Wallace, and that's partly my job this time around.