Tori Kelly Quotes

The creations of a great writer are little more than the moods and passions of his own heart, given surnames and Christian names, and sent to walk the earth.

In today's time, writing stuff that actually happened is touch-and-go, because you don't want to be too personal. If you are, then it probably won't relate to a mass audience. A lot of times you have to make it sound like it's about everybody else, but you really went through it.

I wanted to write stories I wanted to read, that I and my friends related to.

I love to write what I see and what I do and what I experience, and I like to see if people can relate to that. I don't know if I am as good at making up a story in my head that has no truth to it, so that is a challenge for me.

There is an element of autobiography in all fiction in that pain or distress, or pleasure, is based on the author's own. But in my case that is as far as it goes.

When you write fiction, you can sort of invent more but also pack it with emotions that are very pertinent to you. Whereas with nonfiction, you have to be as factual as possible but also hopefully - also bring... emotional relevance to the piece.

Many people have told me that my books read like novels. Perhaps this is because, when I write, I feel I am really there, so strong is my feeling for my subject. On occasion, I have been so moved by the events I have been describing that I have felt like crying.

I'll often use my real stuff in my writing because it comes across as more authentic.

So many of my songs are based on things that either happened to me or to someone I know, but there are also ones where I've written a made-up story. All of them are about very real emotions, and I just find different ways to express them.

We've always written from personal experiences.

I don't think I could write about something I've never experienced or felt; all my songs are about things I've been through.

I like to tell stories in my writing but I definitely use my own life experiences to tell that story.

When I'm writing, I like to have a tiny bit of fact and then exaggerate it and turn it into something more people could relate to.

A lot of times, I have personal things, things I go through that I may exaggerate or make a story around, but it always has a meaning related to something I've been through for real.

I write about personal experiences.

That's the secret to anything we write. You have to bring your experience to it. Otherwise, how do you expect anyone else to connect to it?

Most of the things I sing in my songs, I've lived.

What I see, what I went through, what a friend of mine may have went through, whatever - I rap about it.

I want people to really recognize that this is what I am naturally good at: I'm really good at making music and describing your feelings vicariously through my experiences, through my past and my future. I want people to relate to me in multiple ways and be versatile in my music.

Most writers write from their own experiences. That is where the honesty and intensity of emotions come from.

I would probably struggle a bit more with a really dramatic serious-intent story. You have to really bring it. My brain is so comically wired, though.

Of course I write from experience, but I also do write from things that have happened in the world.

I'm not as worried about the process of writing, simply because I think I've got that one down, you know? I think I know what brings specificity to these ideas, what brings specificity to the genre elements, or anything else, and it's personal emotions.

I think, no matter what, when you're writing songs, most people write about the extremes of their experiences.

All my songs are things that have happened to me.