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" I end up writing about all kinds of things. I never make an attempt to write about anything in particular. I don't have a little list of topics to write about. "

Tracy Chapman

Things

Write

End

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

" I started playing and writing songs when I was eight. "

" I had a ukulele when I was much younger. I have no idea what happened to it but I think that was part of it, just being inspired and wanting to try to play an instrument that, to me, sounded beautiful. "

Tracy Chapman

Play

Think

" It all comes together. It's - that's the way it's always worked for me with songwriting. "

Tracy Chapman

Always

Way

" 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. "

" You need to keep something for yourself. As a writer, I feel that even more strongly. I feel like I need to be able to freely observe the world. That's the way I like to move through the world; I don't need to be the focus of attention. If I am, it impairs my ability to write and to do what I do. "

" Love's a recurring theme through my work. "

" I always considered trying to make a living playing music. But it was always really clear to me, at the various stages in my life, that it really wasn't a possibility unless some phenomenal thing happened. "

" I found myself in the middle of a race riot when I was about 14 years old, and I found someone pointing a gun at me and telling me to run or they'd shoot me. "

Tracy Chapman

Run

Gun

" 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. "

" I think many people would say that writers like Stephen King have hypergraphia. "

Tracy Chapman

King

People

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" It's fun playing small venues. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I was raised in a Baptist tradition, but then I went to an Episcopalian high school, and they were very accepting of people of all faiths. "

" 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. "

" At this point in my life I'd like to live as if only love mattered. "

Tracy Chapman

Point

My Life

" 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

My Life

" 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. "

" There's a time and place for everything, and my focus is music. So that's what I prefer to spend most of my time doing, and not talk about making music. "

" My older sister encouraged me from early on and bought me one of the first guitars I had. She listened to all of the crappy songs that I wrote when I was 8 years old and encouraged me to keep doing it. "

Tracy Chapman

Doing

Early

" 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 dressed up as a veterinarian for a Halloween costume party. I had the lab coat. I got a couple of stuffed animals for patients and put bandages on them. "

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

" I love living in California and being able to go to the beach or go to the woods. "

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

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

Tracy Chapman

Writing

Even