Lucinda Williams Quotes (44 Quotes)

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

I don't mean to complain. I wouldn't trade my life for anything.

I grew up around writers. And it's all about attention to detail.

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.

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.

Could tell a lie but my heart would know.

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.

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.

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 usually have an idea of how I want a song to sound, but I don't always know how to get there.

We've done about a half-dozen of these shows together over the years, and from the first time, it seemed special. It felt comfortable to me, because I was used to sitting around with dad and some of his writer cronies in the living room, playing songs and him reading a couple of poems. I have fond memories of those evenings when we'd be sitting around and I would be asked to play. I might play a Hank Williams song or something like that, and he'd talk about the time he met Hank Williams.

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

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.

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 can't begin to tell you how much my heart is breaking with what's going on in Louisiana. I haven't even begun to be able to deal with he loss of my mother, and now I'm dealing with the loss of the city my mother grew up in.

Any time there's a major change, whether it's going into a relationship, getting out of a relationship, moving to a new city, a death -- that usually provides a catalyst for an explosion of creativity.

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!

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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 just like to kiss and hug people That's what I do I'm physical

You can't really praise somebody's work and then criticize the process.

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

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'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 mean, whose songs don't focus on tragedy and loss?

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

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

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

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.

There's this process that comes about in writing a song where you just stop and see where it can go. Generally, a song will stay with the same idea. I might be thinking about a particular person, for instance. Then it will kind of go from there. And maybe by the end of the song, it will become something more universal.

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.