Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" I always knew I was going to make a record called 'The Foundling.' Since I picked up a guitar, I knew it. "

Related Quotes:

" Once I got my life sorted and started to get healthy, then I was able to focus on writing. "

" I don't really write for catharsis; I get that kind of work done in therapy. "

" I have such a good life. It's something I couldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams. "

" I long for real and true connection. It has been the theme of all the songs in my whole life. "

" I've learned our soldiers are so much like everybody else. They're just put into an extreme situation. "

" I think each veteran's soul has something that it needs to say. I know from my own personal traumas, it's very hard to know what that is. But when I'm watching someone else struggle, it's not as confusing for me, 'cause it's not my struggle, so I can help identify that. "

" If I write for beauty and truth, the songs will find their way to me. Then, it's the songs that speak to the audience, and they can become part of the tribe that is into what I do. "

" I knew I had that Cajun heritage, that Acadian heritage; I just feel it. And my gut says Irish on the other side. Irish and French, that's what I feel. When you're young, it doesn't matter so much, but as you get older, I would suspect part of the ageing process is to wonder about your ancestors - who were they? What were their lives like? "

" I'm a big fan of Lou Reed, and I do a lot of talking through songs. It's more effective with my vocal limitations and also more powerful to slightly sing sometimes. It depends on the emotion, but I'm never going to try to compete with great singers. "

" I came to music and knowing a little bit about life, and I came to music knowing a lot about business - and that's a real advantage. By the time I came to music, I had purchased real estate, opened restaurants, and been in the business world, so the music business didn't blindside me. "

" I guess I find it easier to talk when I have a guitar in front of me. "

" It is a form of arrogance to assume that other people are even thinking about you. "

" I felt my whole life like I didn't have a family, and I needed one. So I had to build one, and you build one with faith, hope, and the healing power of love - or you end up the 'Unabomber.' That's the choice. "

" I think it's a stereotype that soldiers don't talk, because my experience is that they will talk if they are met with empathy and no judgment. "

" Melody's like tweezers that go into the infection and pull out the wounded part. You can almost not stay silent in the face of a melody that matches your emotion. You feel seen. "

" I learn something every time I go to work with a veteran. Every single time. "

" It can take me many months to write one of my own songs. "

" Soldiers are trained not to be vulnerable, but when they come home, they've got to learn it. "

" I don't know who my dad is. "

" A song is an emotional lightning bolt - a good one, anyway. "

" I feel as though I came to music with something to say. It wasn't like that when I was younger. I didn't have the ability to articulate what it was I wanted to say. "

" Recovery stabilized me; songwriting gave me a purpose. "

" I did not know that the wounds of war are often invisible. "

" I try not to eat cakes, but sugar screams my name. "

" When I finally got sober, I moved towards what I might have been if I hadn't been destroying myself when I was young. "

" I spent my 18th birthday in jail. Charges were dropped as long as I promised never to return to the state of Kansas. My parents took me home to Louisiana. I lasted there a week. Then I ran away. "

" The belief when your mother gives you away is that there's something deeply wrong. Mothers don't give babies away. There's something wrong with me, something unlovable, something seriously flawed in me. It's a fundamental thing; it's precognitive. You feel it rather than think it. How could you not? "

" In my early years, I couldn't find a community. I couldn't find anybody like me. I felt so isolated. There was nothing but shame and loneliness. "

" I'm grateful to songwriting and recovery to bringing me to a place of peace. "

" I have got my story. Adoptees rarely get our stories. We only know what we are told. I don't even have my story, really. My mother won't tell me. She won't tell me who my father is. She won't tell me the story of my birth. "