Joni Mitchell Quotes

The composer makes plans, music laughs.

The people at the record company had asked me if I could write a song about my life, my relationship with God, and where I'm from. Well, I can't write a song on purpose, my songs come in a moment of inspiration or desperation.

I probably would've kept slogging on that same chord change, because there's a tendency to have that happen. You get into the cadence in your mind, and it's hard to make the kind of left turn that you probably need to keep it really interesting.

Some people really want to play Mozart and be just performers. I was more interested in invention.

The world that I am coming from, hip-hop, is so regurgitated and repetitive that some people are used to that and they don't want change, they don't like change. And I get that, that's cool. Luckily for me, I'm confident in myself as an artist where I can do what I want, and as long as I'm cool with it, I'm cool with it.

I'm very unpredictable, but at the end of the day, I'm working. Sometimes things change in my life. It's like, 'Hold up - that ain't feel good. That felt good.' And that's how I look at anything I do.

I got to realizing that I wanted to record, I wanted to experiment. And doing those same old songs the same old way - I said, 'I think it's time for me to have some fun.'

Tunings are wonderfully inspiring, and it helps you to write music. If I'm stuck, you know, I change the tuning.

I don't know - it's a bit of a mystery of how things come about when they do. I don't have a scientific explanation for it. Sometimes when you're writing a song, you don't know where you're going.

Music is funny. I shouldn't even ever talk about music, because you can have all the ideas in your head, and it never goes exactly the way that you think it's gonna go.

I'm not the sort of chap who can sit down and write music. When it comes, I'm happy.

Anything with music, you got to have inspiration. You got to have inspiration to do good music.

I love music. I love creating, so I just get inspired with whatever mood I'm in. Whatever the story dictates, that's where my mind goes.

The feeling that you want the listener to get, you should get yourself when you first hit that chord, and that melody comes to mind.

I like the challenge of writing music without being the coolest guy or band in the room.

My life and career have been a big improvisation.

I always want to keep moving musically and trying new things.

If you're always playing the correct notes, there's something wrong - you're not searching; you're not reaching for anything.

Writing music is very, very clinical. You just sit down at a piano, map out a theme and when all the technicalities come together, out pours the music.

You're always thinking about making new music.

Music is all about creativity.

Pop is like a puzzle: to write a perfect pop song, you never know, and there's so much that can happen in a second with a song.

Rap evolves and to still be current you have to evolve with it! Get in front or get left behind.

I was fortunate enough to work at the peak of the great golden age of musicals. And then for awhile, I think they were being advanced in different ways. Andrew Lloyd-Webber brought the rock beat to musicals; people tried different things. The joy of musicals is that there is no perfect recipe; it is what you throw into it.

Mozart combined high formality and playfulness that delights as no other composition in any other medium does.