Too many people focus on writing what they think they should write, what should be in a song, what radio would want.
I often write songs, and when I do, I usually write quite a few of them. I really have to be in the mood.
I guess what people forget sometimes is that when I write songs, I write them sometimes in about 20 minutes.
When you write a song, the goal is not to convey the details of your life. You should write a memoir or something if that's what you're going to do.
I write to be truthful in my songs, which is why I wrote what's painfully truthful about my life in my autobiography.
When I write a song, it's all about the riff - the riff first, then the words come later.
If you're going to write a song, try to get together with a collaborator because it's better to write with collaborators.
I think sometimes - not always - I write songs that are accessible.
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 writing songs since I was 9 years old, so writing has and always will be my first love and passion.
If you write songs and if you write music that's very sincere and very honest, it's pop music, but it is pop music with a lot of honesty and a lot of heart.
There are no rules to writing a song.
I started writing songs at 17.
Some people can sit down and write a song, but they can't go on stage like I can. I tell the songwriter's story. When I read people's lyrics, I'm so amazed. I want to tell this story and make it part of my life. I usually can't write lyrics down, but...
You’re going to have people who are going to say ‘Oh, you know like, she just writes songs about her ex-boyfriends’ and I think frankly that’s a very sexist angle to take. No one says that about Ed Sheeran. No one says it about Bruno Mars. Th...
I didn't really know what I was doing when I started. I just started writing songs. After two songs I just continued to explore it.
Very often, writing a song is a process that happens to me rather than one that I instigate. I feel a song coming on and, like a sneeze; I wait for it until it comes.
I've learned this, that haters wanna hate. You could sing a song perfectly, you could write the songs perfectly, and some people are absolutely going to hate you.
I feel the only way I can survive is to spend a lot of time writing songs. I have to have incredible, killer songs that also are hits, or I just don't have a chance.
It's great when you can write a meaningful song that touches people, but sometimes you just wanna have fun and sing a silly song that doesn't reflect on you as a person.
I am not a good enough writer to have an agenda or come up with a message and try to put it into a song. It's more like you write what comes to you... You try to reflect the mood of the songs.
