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" Everyone is looking for connections between the songs. I don't usually approach a record as a concept. There's no overriding theme I'm trying to represent. It's all about the individual songs. "

Tracy Chapman

Trying

Looking

Connections

Related Quotes:

" As a child, I spent a lot of time at the library. "

" I think it's important, if you are an artist, to use your music to stand up for what you believe in. "

" I picked up the guitar at 11, but even before then, I was writing songs on the organ. "

Tracy Chapman

Writing

Even

" When you feel like you've had a good show, you go backstage and you talk to yourself about it, and if you have a bad show you talk to yourself about it. "

" Songwriting is a very mysterious process. It feels like creating something from nothing. It's something I don't feel like I really control. "

Tracy Chapman

Nothing

Feel

" My first record was almost not my first record. "

" Stand up for yourself and fight for your right to be the artist that you want to be. There's plenty of pressure from outside; people tell you how to dress and how to sing or what to sing, but I always felt like if I'm going to fail or succeed, I want to do it on my own terms. "

" I decided to do whatever I could to make sure the business side of music didn't intrude on the creative part. "

" I'm still thinking and hoping there's an opportunity for people to have better lives and that significant change can occur. "

" I grew up with music in the house. I was told I could sing as soon as I started talking. Everybody in my family sang, always lots of records, blues and jazz and soul, R&B, you know, like Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Coltrane, that kind of thing. "

" As you might imagine, I'm approached by lots of organizations and lots of people who want me to support their various charitable efforts in some way. And I look at those requests, and I basically try to do what I can. "

Tracy Chapman

People

Look

" I think religion played a huge part in Bush's re-election. "

" I learn all these things about the record talking about it after it's finished. "

" That's one of the things I like about San Francisco. It's not like anywhere else in the world. "

Tracy Chapman

Else

San Francisco

" You have to pay attention to the moment and make it the best it can be for you. I've been trying to do that. It's really made a major difference for me. I'm a happier person. "

Tracy Chapman

Best

Attention

" Men are able to sustain a career into their 50s and 60s and still present themselves as sex symbols. With women, on the other hand, people say, 'Why doesn't she retire?' "

" I never travelled when I was younger. "

" I never assumed I would have that commercial success, so it was a total surprise. And honestly, I never assumed that it would ever happen again. "

" I see some recurring themes: things that feel threaded together, some symbolic references, and songs about some of the big questions, like death. There are a lot of references to weather, too! "

" I don't try to project any image at all, other than the person that I am. "

" When we started making 'Where You Live', I bought a bunch of Polaroid cameras in so that people could record the experience. Some of those pictures are in the CD sleeve. "

" With other people, you're always swapping music. Somebody is always listening to something you've never heard. It's a great way to hear all sorts of new things. "

" I mentioned that I received a scholarship to Episcopalian school, and the model for the school was 'From each according to his or her ability and to each according to his or her need.' And it's something that is still really important to me in thinking about how I prioritize what I do with my life. "

" We have more media than ever and more technology in our lives. It's supposed to help us communicate, but it has the opposite effect of isolating us. "

Tracy Chapman

Than

Technology

" Maybe it's naive to say, but it almost seems like, in the past, people tried to sell you something you would actually need, like a hammer or a broom or a toothbrush. But now there's this notion that they can sell you anything. And all they have to do is convince you that you need it. "

" As I started to consider a career in music, I hoped for success, truthfully. I didn't imagine anything that would amass the level of the first record, but I hoped that I would be able to sustain a career. "

" I may be revered or defamed and decried; But I tried to live my life right. "

" I can't think of anything worse, really, than to try to live up to someone else's expectations of what you should be. You don't make art by consensus. "

" So much has happened to obscure the dialogue about race and about gender and discrimination in general, especially where those things touch on economics. "

" After it's finished, sometimes I can trace a path that goes back to the possible source of inspiration. "