Tracy Chapman Quotes

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Love's a recurring theme through my work.

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

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

Words don't come easily, like forgive me.

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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 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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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?'

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.