Home
Authors
Tags
App
Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App
" Honestly, I think, as an artist, it's everything that's in your life that informs what you do. So, obviously, growing up in Cleveland has played a big role in how I see the world. "
Tracy Chapman
Growing Up
Life
World
Related Quotes:
" Music was never just a hobby for me. I'd pick up a guitar every day to work on whatever I was writing at the time. I would put my ideas in songs the way some people might put them in diaries or journals. "
Tracy Chapman
Day
Music
People
" There are some concerns that are universal. Everyone wants to be loved, and everyone wants to feel like they belong somewhere in the world. Everyone wants to do something and feel like they have a sense of purpose. These are just the things that I think about and the things that make their way into my songwriting. "
Tracy Chapman
World
Think
Purpose
" The way popular music is categorized and formatted cuts down on everyone's options. And although people don't talk about it, there are a lot of issues of race determining musical categories of what's rock, R&B, or even folk. It ends up restricting creativity. "
Tracy Chapman
Race
Music
Rock
" I could make records at home in a vacuum, but that is not the situation. I'm just taking it one phase at a time. "
Tracy Chapman
Situation
Home
Just
" The songs are not necessarily autobiographical. A lot of songs are a combination of influences. It might be some part of my life, or something I've felt, or something somebody's told me. It all comes together. "
Tracy Chapman
Some
Me
My Life
" We all must live our lives always feeling, always thinking the moment has arrived. "
Tracy Chapman
Live
Always
Feeling
" If you are living a life that feels right to you, if you're willing to take creative chances or a creative path that feels like it's mostly in keeping with your sensibilities, you know, aesthetic and artistic, then that's what matters. "
Tracy Chapman
Know
Life
Path
" After it's finished, sometimes I can trace a path that goes back to the possible source of inspiration. "
Tracy Chapman
I Can
Back
Path
" I never travelled when I was younger. "
Tracy Chapman
Travelled
Younger
Never
" We do need to think about how we have security - everyone has a right to that - but we also need to think about how we maintain civil rights and personal freedom. "
Tracy Chapman
Security
Personal
Need
" 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. "
Tracy Chapman
Need
You
Say
" 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. "
Tracy Chapman
People
Yourself
Stand Up
" A lot of kids spent more time out of school than in, but I always loved school and thought it was my way out of Cleveland, and out of poverty. "
Tracy Chapman
Loved
Time
Poverty
" My first record was almost not my first record. "
Tracy Chapman
Almost
First
Record
" Love's a recurring theme through my work. "
Tracy Chapman
Theme
Work
Recurring
" That's what everyone should do with their lives: stand up for what they believe in or try to do some good in the world. I don't think artists have a greater responsibility than anyone else. "
Tracy Chapman
Try
Think
Good
" 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
Me
Look
" I started playing and writing songs when I was eight. "
Tracy Chapman
Eight
Writing
Started
" I love living in California and being able to go to the beach or go to the woods. "
Tracy Chapman
Love
California
Living
" 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
" One of the reasons I chose Tufts is that they have one of the best veterinary schools in the country. Since I was six years old, I wanted to be a veterinarian. "
Tracy Chapman
Years
Veterinarian
Best
" I meet people in my daily life, people who seem to experience some change and some growth on a personal level, and that gives me hope. "
Tracy Chapman
Life
Growth
Hope
" Growing up in Cleveland, I learned about singing from my mother, who had once sung professionally and who admired Mahalia Jackson and Aretha Franklin. "
Tracy Chapman
Singing
Mother
Growing Up
" 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. "
Tracy Chapman
Live
Think
Try
" It's fun playing small venues. "
Tracy Chapman
Small
Fun
Playing
" I decided to do whatever I could to make sure the business side of music didn't intrude on the creative part. "
Tracy Chapman
Sure
Music
Creative
" What does the future look like if the heads of society ask our young people to risk their lives for questionable causes? I think it looks rather bleak. "
Tracy Chapman
Look
Think
Society
" 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. "
Tracy Chapman
School
Her
My Life
" I think of the audience the way I would think of another person: You meet someone, then you take it from there; you see what's interesting to both of you. "
Tracy Chapman
Someone
Think
You
" 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. "
Tracy Chapman
Never
Surprise
Success