Gilbert O'Sullivan Quotes

I'm not an artist that makes singles, I'm an artist that makes albums, and it's a totally different thing.

The Beatles had just come out, and everybody had a band. It was incredible competition out there.

I'm competitive with anyone who writes a good song - I don't care if it's a band or solo artist or whoever.

My main concern is getting out an album that I feel really proud of.

I feel like I write songs for the future or something. Not in an arrogant way, but I feel like maybe my songs were, like, before their time or something.

Well, when you're recording an album, artists have what they feel like is good music, and the label, they're trying to sell the album. So those two ideas clash sometimes, but in the end it always works out. When you put the two together, that's a good thing.

If people go into music with the idea of competing with other artists, then they're doing it for all the wrong reasons.

I'm treating country music like it's a sport. I'm looking at where my competition is and realized I needed to work on my songwriting.

It would be ridiculous to say I don't want to sell records, but I trust my taste.

I'm a creative person, and I've got a lot of ideas. People probably thought that my mentality was quick fame because I made 'Rack City' and it blew up fast, but I have over 1,000 songs recorded.

I think it was when I was 12 when I entered a singing competition. I sang my own original song for an audience of 1,000 people.

Every time I step on the court, I know I can beat my opponent.

I think when people make a record with a goal in mind - like taking it to the next level or making them seem more mature - that gets in the way of writing great songs.

I think the days of just filling the time and putting a disc out is over, and I'm glad, because those are some of my least favourite records.

If I look at it and feel there is someone who can do it better, I won't do it. Whether it's 'Party Down' or 'Piranha 3-D,' I'm going to bring something to it to make it special.

I had my whole life to write a bunch of crappy songs and then play them in front of people and think, 'All right, that one out of these seven is really good; it's a keeper.' But on this second album, to be honest, I probably wrote about 50 songs where I was just trying to write a hit.

I try to make the songs as good as I can - the way I like it, you know? And I guess my taste sometimes happens to be what other people, particularly radio programmers, like too.

I know when I've written a good song when I can imagine the video. If I can't imagine the video straight away, I'm not gonna put it on my album.

I put out tapes, but I always kept saying, 'Why am I putting all this energy into these tapes?' I was like, 'I'd rather make just an album because I have a vision; I know how I want to do my records.' I always felt like an artist as well.

I think it's exciting because it pushes you harder to write a great song. Even for established artists, it has to be really good now because people have so many other options.

I could make a PartyNextDoor album that's clean, all hits. That's not what I care about doing.

"Failure" isn't a word I really use. I am a very resilient person; I bounce back extremely fast, and I believe in myself and my talent as an artist.

I've had many highs in my career, and Eurovision has been a wonderful experience.

I had all these singles come out within a two-month period, and then nothing for almost two years. You start to feel a little irrelevant. You realize how many people there are trying to be songwriters and how competitive it is and how political things can be.

I wanted to do this so badly, to be a successful musician.