Tift Merritt Quotes

I think for writers who write that kind of stuff, they want to make changes. Look at Kris Kristofferson and Dylan. I mean, whole generations come along liking that stuff and that's great.

I feel like a lyricist is somebody that writes their own lyrics. Now songwriters and lyricists are two totally different things. You can't really be a lyricist if you didn't write your lyrics. There's no passion, there's nothing in it coming from you. It's somebody else's feelings and you just taking it and running with it.

Readers would email me and say, 'Please write a novel about so-and-so,' but it has to come from yourself and not so much from your readership.

I think I'm attracted to writers who tell us something about ourselves.

Songwriters tell the truth.

My style of songwriting is influenced by cinema. I'm a frustrated filmmaker. A fan once said to me, 'Girl, you make me see pictures in my head!' and I took that as a great compliment. That's exactly my intention.

I draw inspiration from anything and everybody and that's what country music is to me... real life stories and real life emotions.

My main goal as a songwriter is to make something that inspires people. To write things about my life that people can relate to. Whether it's a whole record or just one song for someone, I hope it can do that for them. Knowing that I have the ability to do that is inspiring to me.

In songwriting, I needed language. And I always believed in singing about what I do.

Listen to the Bee Gees and you can learn to be a great writer.

I never dreamed that the little ditties I wrote about annoying customers or bagel recipes would turn into a full-length musical comedy. But a very wise person told me to 'write what you know'. So I did.

I work on words, mostly, toward them being poetry or short stories, and then some of those become songs. They all find their place in the world, but they all start off in the same place. I'm always painting and drawing as well, and it's an ongoing creative assignment.

The mission of the playwright is to look in his heart and write, to write whatever concerns him at the moment; to write with passion and conviction. Of course the measure of the man will be the measure of the play.

The words of the songs speak for themselves.

Both Springsteen and Michael Jackson, who had these huge productions, could always scale them back down to just a song and a melody. All of that influences me. I also try to be a fictional writer, and sometimes I get close, but the things that resonate the most with me - and with everyone else - is what's real.

The way I write my songs is that I have to believe what I'm writing about, and that's why they always end up being so personal - because the kind of artists I like, they convince me, they totally win me over straight away in that thing. Like, 'Oh my God, this song is totally about me.'

Whether I'm acting, writing, or directing, I want to tell the truth about human beings, especially my folk.

If you can take a piece of life and put it in a song, it's going to be a good song - especially if it's from the heart.

I write my own lyrics; I can incorporate my own ideas. And yes, apparently, people think it's cool. That's pretty awesome.

I'm a big fan of lyrics - lyrics are the thing that move me in certain ways.

You can only really sing about what you know; at least, I can.

If you listen to my music, you know who I'm talking to, what I'm talking about, and exactly what my message is.

When I think of artists I love, like J. Cole, it's the storytelling that grabs me. I want to be honest with my music.

I think I started writing because no one had ever told me you can write about the things you know in a musical. They don't have to come from some far off place.

He is exactly the poem I wanted to write.