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" 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

Related Quotes:

" We all must live our lives always feeling, always thinking the moment has arrived. "

" My first record was almost not my first record. "

" 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. "

" 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

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

Tracy Chapman

Point

My Life

" I think it's important, if you are an artist, to use your music to stand up for what you believe in. "

" 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

" 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

" 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. "

" 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

Attention

" 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. "

" 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

" I never travelled when I was younger. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

Tracy Chapman

King

People

" 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. "

" It's fun playing small venues. "

" I'm a hopeful cynic. "

Tracy Chapman

Cynic

Hopeful

" That's one of the things I like about San Francisco. It's not like anywhere else in the world. "

Tracy Chapman

Else

San Francisco

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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?' "