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" 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
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" 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. "
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" I think many people would say that writers like Stephen King have hypergraphia. "
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" I'm a hopeful cynic. "
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" As a child I always had a sense of social conditions and political situations. I think it had to do with the fact that my mother was always discussing things with my sister and me - also because I read a lot. "
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" 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?' "
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" 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. "
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" 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. "
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" 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. "
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" 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. "
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Technology
" 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. "
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" 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. "
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Growing Up
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World
" 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. "
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" I picked up the guitar at 11, but even before then, I was writing songs on the organ. "
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" 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. "
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Need
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Say
" 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. "
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" Songwriting is a very mysterious process. It feels like creating something from nothing. It's something I don't feel like I really control. "
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" My first record was almost not my first record. "
Tracy Chapman
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" 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
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" 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. "
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Me
Play
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" At this point in my life I'd like to live as if only love mattered. "
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Like
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" 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. "
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People
Tradition
School
" I may be revered or defamed and decried; But I tried to live my life right. "
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" There have been some gains made in terms of more equality for women in the workplace and in the way the legal system deals with issues of violence against women. "
Tracy Chapman
Women
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" 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
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" After it's finished, sometimes I can trace a path that goes back to the possible source of inspiration. "
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" 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. "
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Family
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Soul
" 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. "
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You
Yourself
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" 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. "
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" I'm still thinking and hoping there's an opportunity for people to have better lives and that significant change can occur. "
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