Jerry Garcia Quotes

Sometimes a chord on a guitar will somehow spur some thought in your head, and you will write a song about it.

Every day you can write a song but some days there is just some magic in the air and something special about the catch; other days you write all day on a song line or idea.

I've written many extra verses to songs that I learned to sing - an extra verse about a friend, or just add some verse - and that led to writing my own songs.

The goal is always just to write the best song that you can write. I mean, the process for writing a song is the process for writing a song. It's not something I look at it as something I need to do something different.

One of my biggest thrills for me still is sitting down with a guitar or a piano and just out of nowhere trying to make a song happen.

When I was writing 'Shotgun,' it's one of the first songs that's come to me as an image.

It's a big plethora of music floating around in my head all the time, and I'll sit there and write a song.

I always try to write a song, I never just want to write a record.

I keep this crazy notebook of song ideas.

Every time I get up in the morning, melodies occur to me and I start trying to shape lyrics to melodies.

The first time I tried to write was when I was 14, after I got an electric guitar. I put a song together, and it wasn't that bad! The writing came natural to me.

Ultimately, I'm a fan of music. I describe writing music sometimes as hieroglyphics, like, you know, excavating, gently brushing off these artifacts and discovering the song underneath it all. It seems as if it is already written in it.

I write a lot, and very often I write a couple of lines that are particularly revealing in some kind of way. And then as a few more lines get added and a piece gets added, eventually the song pretty much takes over and you can't really find a way to change those things.

I was never a 'sit down with a notepad and write lyrics' kind of person.

I don't get my inspiration from a specific source. It's more like if you listen to a good tune, it gives me inspiration to write a better tune.

Do you think I'm wandering around all day thinking, 'I must write a song called 'Three Coins In The Fountain'?' Only an idiot would do that.

Anything is food for starting a song. A song can start with a lyric idea or a melody or just a sound that inspires.

Usually, the music inspires the lyrics. The lyrics just sort of fall off like a bunch of crumbs from the melody. That's all I want them to be - crumbs. I don't want to work any kind of fabricated message.

I don't know what the inspiration for most of songs really mean until I finish them. For the most part, I'm going for a visceral impression, and I write the words last.

I always start with the music and then try to figure out what I want to write about lyrically.

My songs pretty much revolve in my brain most of the time - usually, whatever's coming next.

I try and treat songwriting as something that I have to practise every day.

What's cool about making music is when you create a record, it comes from somewhere.

I'm without a doubt a producer first. The lyrics happen towards the tail-end of the process, mainly because they're more stream-of-consciousness. It's very rare that I'm going to tell a really concrete story.

I don't sit down to write a country song. I don't sit down to write a rap song. I just sit down to write a song, you know what I mean? And I try to make that song the best it can be.