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" I started playing and writing songs when I was eight. "
Tracy Chapman
Eight
Writing
Started
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" I never travelled when I was younger. "
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" I may be revered or defamed and decried; But I tried to live my life right. "
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Life
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" Love's a recurring theme through my work. "
Tracy Chapman
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Recurring
" 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. "
Tracy Chapman
Yourself
Bad
Feel
" 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
" 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. "
Tracy Chapman
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Tradition
School
" 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. "
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Someone
Think
You
" There are good reasons for being in jail - for protesting. "
Tracy Chapman
Reasons
Being
Jail
" 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
" 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 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! "
Tracy Chapman
Together
Weather
Death
" I don't try to project any image at all, other than the person that I am. "
Tracy Chapman
Person
Try
Project
" 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
" 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
" 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
Me
Attention
" 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
Me
Play
Think
" I think it's important, if you are an artist, to use your music to stand up for what you believe in. "
Tracy Chapman
Believe
Stand
Think
" 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. "
Tracy Chapman
You
Yourself
I Am
" I won't get into it any more than to say that there are parts of me in all the songs that I write. "
Tracy Chapman
Write
Than
More
" We all must live our lives always feeling, always thinking the moment has arrived. "
Tracy Chapman
Live
Always
Feeling
" 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. "
Tracy Chapman
You
New Things
People
" People's real hopes and dreams can be distorted and misdirected and packaged until you're not sure what you really want or what you even really need. "
Tracy Chapman
Dreams
Real
Want
" 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
" As a child, I spent a lot of time at the library. "
Tracy Chapman
Lot
Spent
Time
" 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
" 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. "
Tracy Chapman
Career
Music
Started
" 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
" 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
" So much has happened to obscure the dialogue about race and about gender and discrimination in general, especially where those things touch on economics. "
Tracy Chapman
Economics
Gender
Race
" 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