Lucinda Williams Quotes

I guess you could write a good song if your heart hadn`t been broken, but I don`t know of anyone whose heart hasn`t been broken.

I`m just like everyone. I like to feel togetherness with someone.

It`s really about living in your head... just looking out at the world, then going back into your head and tossing around a lot of ideas and coming out with something interesting to say.

So few people are truly themselves when they`re in the spotlight.

The old jazz singers or old blues singers, you always just saw them kind of sitting down and singing. They weren`t worried as much about their voice sounding perfect. They would make the song kind of fit their voice.

Some of their best songs don`t have bridges and choruses. So that made me think I should trust my instincts. My songs were okay, I figured. I didn`t need to change anything.

I feel a lot more comfortable being me these days. I`m constantly told that my work is good. A lot of fans and a lot of other artists say my songs and albums mean a lot to them. Isn`t that what`s important?

I don`t mean to complain. I wouldn`t trade my life for anything.

I grew up in a very literate, very independent household where people spoke their ideas and were very supportive of helping each other find their own way.

I`m trying to learn how to tap into the power of my own being. I know it sounds corny.

I am trying to get right with God. I`m sort of making a statement about the excessiveness.

I write first for myself as a therapeutic process, to get stuff out and to deal with it.

You can`t really praise somebody`s work and then criticize the process.

I`m fascinated by the whole concept of snake handling. When you read about the Pentecostal snake handlers, what strikes you the most is their commitment.

I`ve had trouble being in relationships and writing. This has been a real problem for me. I don`t know if it`s because I`m not free to fantasize or create these fantasy things about other people.

Just because I`m talking about something that might have been a sad or painful situation doesn`t mean that I`m sad or tortured 24 hours a day any more than anybody else is.

I`m not just a doormat. I`m not just being stepped on all over the place. If you look at the bulk of my material, it`s about trying to find some strength through that.

I`m dealing with things as they come along, and I`m talking about it.

In so many interviews, they bring up the sexual aspect of the record. I`ve had some journalists say it sounds like I`m lying down in bed singing with a microphone. It gets so old!

You should put time into learning your craft. It seems like people want success so quickly, way before they`re ready.

If you come into success too soon, you`ll burn out and be finished before you know it. If you let the maturation process happen naturally, you`ll be happier with yourself in the end.

I feel like it`s really kind of a sit-down album, much in the same way I imagine Billie Holiday or someone sitting down in the studio and singing.

I started writing more with my voice in mind.

We just did a few takes of a song and just picked the best one. It was real organic and genuine.

The man I lived with is a Christian, so I would talk to him about it. What would this person do in the Bible? What`s the story around this person? Generally, when people talk about characters in the Bible, there`s one thing they`re known for, like Job.

People let their own hang-ups become the obstacles between them and personal happiness.

Where they`re just speaking in tongues, like they`re on a drug or something... Would I really do that if that`s what it would take?

I have such a great band. We had played all this material on the road. I just wanted to let it fly.

I have to try different things to see what works best. Other people get impatient with that.

I`d rather play a few nights at the Fillmore than play one night at an arena.

I`m trying to get out of my own way.

I mean, whose songs don`t focus on tragedy and loss?

I just broke up with my boyfriend, and I`ve been spending more time alone than I`d like.

Sade`s stuff is real deceptive. She`s got stuff about prostitutes, poverty and people on the streets.

The more I separate myself from my upbringing, the more I appreciate what it`s done for me.

Sometimes I feel like I just open myself up like I`m a vehicle for something coming through me. It`s like a meditative state I have to be in.

I usually have an idea of how I want a song to sound, but I don`t always know how to get there.