Anne Waldman Quotes

To me, writing is a matter of voice. I think like that. The expression I sometimes use to myself is 'actual song.' That what I do is somewhere on the line between speaking to you as I am now and actual song. And the things I love when I say one of those poems to myself - it's a little bit like singing, it's a little bit like speaking.

Of all the arts, music is really the most abstract.

The act of song writing and recording became one and the same to me; because I essentially recorded everything I did from the day I began trying to write songs. I've always had a lot to say. I'd always written poems.

I did that Grammys thing - I did a little freeform poem.

I try to transmit emotion and soul in my voice, but my true passion has always been writing. I feel more like a writer than anything else.

In music, you feel a connection to the voice and think about the person behind it. In art that's secondary.

Lyrically, I personally lean towards venting.

I grew up thinking art was pictures until I got into music and found I was an artist and didn't paint.

I found that music was my favorite art form.

I was already writing poetry, so I transitioned from writing poetry a cappella to writing over beats, and it was way more exciting to me that way.

Writing is very much perceived as something distinct from performance. I don't see it like that.

I'm not good at talking, but I can write a good song and tell a story.

I just don't see myself as a songwriter or a country singer or any of those things anymore. It's more trying to express ideas and emotional textures.

I've always been a writer. I've always done writing or spoken-word, hip-hop stuff with my friends.

I like to make glamorously informed songs for glamorously intelligent people.

First of all, I'm not a singer or rapper. I'm an artiste. Besides singing, I produce music, dance, write poetry, and sometimes I paint as well.

As I showed the world my art, my heart, I wasn't just an actress. I was actually an artist. And that was my transformation.

I really just love reading. It's my favorite thing, performing my poems live. Reading by reading, I just kind of follow my nose.

You listen to something like 'Beast Mode,' and it's almost like looking at a pretty painting.

I always like spoken word records.

For me, it's all about making a song that communicates something to a big crowd, but you still feel like it's authentic to who you are. That's that kind of pop that I hope and wish to do.

I think I'm just doing me, my music, my shows, and my stories.

I make grown-folks music, and I'm cool with that. I accept that. I try to be witty while also delivering a message.

I don't think comedians make an active decision to be a certain "persona." Comedians write the way they're going to write.

The poet is like the wise fool or like a version of the stand-up, because we're standing, we're doing stand-up. That's exactly what we're doing.