Quotes by John Prine - Page 3

It was always difficult for me to listen to my singing voice for the first 20 years or so. I mean, I really enjoyed singing, and I enjoyed doing live shows, but being in a recording studio and having to hear my voice played back to me would really drive me up the wall.
John Prine / Singer-Songwriter
Difficult
Enjoyed
Mean
Recording Studio
Shows
Singing
Voice
Wall
Years
Always Me Difficult
Always Me Voice
Always
Being
Drive
Played
Back
Doing
First
Me Voice Always
Having
Hear
Live Shows
Studio
Recording
Singing Voice
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I always knew Gordon Lightfoot was a really great songwriter, but his stuff even sounds better and better all the time. It's just so really good to me. It's just like that's what should be in a dictionary, you know, next to a really good contempory folk song, is a Gordon Lightfoot song.
John Prine / Singer-Songwriter
Song
Sound
Stuff
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I wrote most of 'Hello in There' in a relay box, which looks like a mail box, only bigger. Sometimes, it was so cold and windy on my mail route that I'd go inside the relay box and eat a sandwich, just to get away from the wind. I remember working on 'Hello in There' inside the relay box.
John Prine / Singer-Songwriter
Bigger
Cold
Hello
Looks
Mail
Wind
Inside
Box
Away
Working
Relay
Route
Sandwich
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You get to thinking that because you've written 50 or 100 songs, you think maybe you know how to do it. But when they're not coming along, you're just as in the dark as you ever were. When they're coming along, there's nothing to it. Sometimes it's so easy, it's like you're a court stenographer.
John Prine / Singer-Songwriter
Court
Dark
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I guess I just process death differently than some folks. Realizing you're not going to see that person again is always the most difficult part about it. But that feeling settles, and then you are glad you had that person in your life, and then the happiness and the sadness get all swirled up inside you.
John Prine / Singer-Songwriter
Death
Happiness
Folks
Glad
Process
Realizing
Sadness
Life Death Always
Most
Inside
Person
Just
Then
Going
Had
Always
Again
Get
Part
Differently
Feeling
Guess
Some
See
Than
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When I turned 40, I invited Johnny Cash to my party, even though I knew there was gonna be 200 people roasting a pig and wild as can be. He didn't come, but the next day, I got a bowl of chili he'd made and a note that said, 'John, I'd love to come to your party, but that would mean I would have to leave my house.'
John Prine / Singer-Songwriter
Cash
Chili
House
Invited
Made
Mean
Next
Party
Said
Love Your Day
Come
Love Your People
Love Day People
Bowl
He
Wild
Day
Leave
Even
Gonna
Got
Would
John
Note
Pig
Though
Turned
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I take my own syrup, ketchup, and mustard, just in case of emergencies, in my suitcase. Whatever I can steal from the hotels. It's usually Heinz ketchup, and they give you a weird mustard. You don't get French's or anything; you get some sort of Dijon or some mustard. That's just for hot dogs. I don't use mustard for anything else.
John Prine / Singer-Songwriter
Emergencies
Mustard
Syrup
Weird
Anything
Anything Else
Own
Case
French
Dogs
Else
Whatever
Give
Hot Dogs
Some
Steal
Suitcase
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I always had an affinity for older people. I had a job delivering newspapers, and one place I had to go was an old people's home. Some people would introduce you to their neighbors as if you were a nephew or grandson. They didn't get many visitors, so they acted like you were coming to see them. And that stuck with me for a long time.
John Prine / Singer-Songwriter
Home
Affinity
Delivering
Grandson
Long
Long Time
Newspapers
Older People
Stuck
Visitors
Time Always Me
Time Home Always
Time Home Me
Job
Go
Had
Acted
Them
Coming
Old
Older
Would
Introduce
Place
Neighbors
Some
See
Some People
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To tell you the truth, the nomination for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame totally surprised me. I had no idea that was coming. I know a lot of people like to say it's enough just to be nominated. But I've been nominated for so many things, I'd like to get this one. I think it's a long shot, considering I never had a No. 1 rock n' roll record.
John Prine / Singer-Songwriter
Considering
Fame
No Idea
Rock And Roll
Totally
Truth Enough Long
Shot
Coming
Hall
Record
Long Shot
Rock
Nominated
Surprised
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I can't really sit around and talk with people who believe that the Bible is the way it happened, because that's man-made. I'm a writer, too; that's how I look at the Bible. Like, 'I could've written a better version than that,' you know? At least a more interesting one, and then maybe more people would go to church. I could definitely do a revamp.
John Prine / Singer-Songwriter
Man-Made
More People
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Some of the songs come so fully, it's like they are pre-packaged. There have been a couple that came in the middle of the night. And I thought, jeez, I'll never forget that. And went back to sleep, and it was gone. You'll hear something years later that another songwriter that you respect writes, and you go, jeez, I think that was the remnants of that song that got sent to me.
John Prine / Singer-Songwriter
Couple
Sleep
Song
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I think the more the listener can contribute to the song, the better; the more they become part of the song, and they fill in the blanks. Rather than tell them everything, you save your details for things that exist. Like what color the ashtray is. How far away the doorway was. So when you're talking about intangible things like emotions, the listener can fill in the blanks and you just draw the foundation.
John Prine / Singer-Songwriter
Color
Song
Thinking
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I just tried to come up with some honest songs. What I was writing about was real plain stuff that I wasn't sure was going to be interesting to other people. But I guess it was...I've never had any discipline whatsoever. I just wait on a song like I was waiting for lightning to strike. And eventually-usually sometime around 3 in the morning-I'll have a good idea. By the time the sun comes up, hopefully, I'll have a decent song.
John Prine / Singer-Songwriter
Morning
Real
Song
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I edit as I go. Especially when I go to commit it to paper. I prefer a typewriter even to a computer. I don't like it. There's no noise on the computer. I like a typewriter because I am such a slow typist. I edit as I am committing it to paper. I like to see the words before me and I go, "Yeah, that's it." They appear before me and they fit. I don't usually take large parts out. If I get stuck early in a song, I take it as a sign that I might be writing the chorus and don't know it. Sometimes,you gotta step back a little bit and take a look at what you're doing.
John Prine / Singer-Songwriter
Song
Typewriters
Writing
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John Prine Quotes - Page 3

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