Sharon Van Etten Quotes

I like to compose, but only for myself. I write my own lyrics and compose the music around them.

First and foremost, I consider myself a songwriter.

I have writing songs on my own for about six years.

We do write our own music.

I've been writing and composing songs since I was 5 years old.

Writing music and lyrics, you tend to become a control freak - sitting alone in your room with a bare light bulb over your head, writing communist manifestos.

There's many, many ways to write a song. But generally, sitting down at a table and writing is not one of them.

I have been taking voice and singing lessons since age 10 and originally got into it because I was really interested in musical theater. After writing my first couple of songs and performing at age 14, I knew that I really wanted to be a singer.

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.

I've never written a song in my life. It's all a big hoax.

We just wanted to write a bunch of songs that we thought were good songs.

I write the music because I can't really write lyrics. But I can write chords like Robin's never heard of. So I provide the music for them to add the lyrics to.

When Marty Short and I get together, I sit down at the piano and play the score of 'Godspell.'

My brother is an excellent songwriter, and I play guitar and drums.

We worked very hard to make the lyrics suit the music. I can't, like Elton John, for example, compose by lyrics. Elton has a great talent for that. Whatever you give him, including your questions, he composes in half an hour and makes a great song out of it.

I don't really love to perform in music. Some people like it more, but it's not my thing so much, but just the writing, when you get the lyric, and the lyric just goes just the right way, or you find the right bridge that takes you to the solo, and those moments are tremendous, and it's difficult to portray.

I've always been a songwriter.

We felt like, first and foremost, we were songwriters.

You can't write much quality, original music on a concertina.

I like writing and don't confine myself to just the words or just the music. But I don't particularly write songs with myself in mind.

We write our own songs, play our own instruments.

I wouldn't sit down and work at writing a song like a novelist or something.

I think, now that I've been writing songs in general, whether it's for the group or for me, I definitely feel like I got a little trigger happy, because it was so exciting to have production and create and put a lot in there.

Most of my collaborations, certainly post - Howard Ashman but even with Howard, are music first.

I'm writing songs that I want to sing.