Quotes by Tracy Chapman - Page 2 | QuoteForever

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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.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Technology
Communicate
Media
Our Lives
Talking
Opposite
Ever
Effect
Help
Supposed
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I'm never sure if I'll ever write another song, what the song will be about and if what initially sparked the beginning of a song might complete it.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Might
Song
Writing
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I really love playing music with other people. It's more fun to be on the road with others. It's kind of lonely out there when you play on your own!
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Fun
Lonely
Play
Copy Quote
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.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Dream
People
Real
Distorted
Hopes
Misdirected
Packaged
Copy Quote
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.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Consensus
Expectations
Try
Worse
Copy Quote
Growing up in Cleveland, I learned about singing from my mother, who had once sung professionally and who admired Mahalia Jackson and Aretha Franklin.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Cleveland
Franklin
Growing Up
Mother
Singing
Admired
Aretha
Jackson
Professionally
Sung
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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.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Bleak
Causes
Questionable
Heads
Young People
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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.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Feels
Like You
Shows
Backstage
Good Yourself Feel
Copy Quote
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.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
My Time
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So much has happened to obscure the dialogue about race and about gender and discrimination in general, especially where those things touch on economics.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Dialogue
Discrimination
Obscure
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I dressed up as a veterinarian for a Halloween costume party. I had the lab coat. I got a couple of stuffed animals for patients and put bandages on them.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Couple
Halloween
Party
Veterinarian
Animals
Coat
Costume
Dressed
Lab
Patients
Stuffed
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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.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Running
Found Someone
Gun
Pointing
Riot
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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.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Littles
Topics
Writing
Attempt
List
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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 / Singer-Songwriter
Veterinarian
Chose
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With other people, you're always swapping music. Somebody is always listening to something you've never heard. It's a great way to hear all sorts of new things.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Listening
New Things
People
Swapping
Music Great People
Great Way
Copy Quote
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 / Singer-Songwriter
Legal
Deals
Gains
Legal System
Workplace
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We do need to think about how we have security - everyone has a right to that - but we also need to think about how we maintain civil rights and personal freedom.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Civil Rights
Personal Freedom
Security
Civil
Maintain
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There's a power in words. There's a power in being able to explain and describe and articulate what you know and feel and believe about the world, and about yourself.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Able
Believe
World
Copy Quote
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.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Cameras
Cd
Polaroid
Sleeve
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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?'
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Men
Hands
Sex
Symbols
Retire
Women Men People
Women Men Sex
Hand
Present
People Say
Sustain
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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 / Singer-Songwriter
Attention
Differences
Pay Attention
Trying
Best Moment Me
Happier
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So don't be tempted by the shiny apple Don't you eat of a bitter fruit Hunger only for a taste of justice Hunger only for a world of truth 'Cause all that you have is your soul.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Love
Apples
Justice
Copy Quote
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.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Cleveland
Life World Your
Informs
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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 / Singer-Songwriter
Good Believe World
Anyone Else
Good World Believe
Stand Up
Copy Quote
Everyone is looking for connections between the songs. I don't usually approach a record as a concept. There's no overriding theme I'm trying to represent. It's all about the individual songs.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Approach
Connections
Song
Trying
Concept
Represent
Overriding
Copy Quote
I see some recurring themes: things that feel threaded together, some symbolic references, and songs about some of the big questions, like death. There are a lot of references to weather, too!
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Big Questions
Recurring
Song
Symbolic
Together
Weather
References
Themes
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Consume more than you need This is the dream Make you pauper Or make you queen I won't die lonely I'll have it all prearranged A grave that's deep and wide enough For me and all my mountains o'things
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Dream
Queens
Lonely
Mountain
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My older sister encouraged me from early on and bought me one of the first guitars I had. She listened to all of the crappy songs that I wrote when I was 8 years old and encouraged me to keep doing it.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Sister
Guitar
Older Sister
Song
Years
Me Keep Doing
Me Doing Old
Bought
Crappy
Guitars
Encouraged
Listened
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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 / Singer-Songwriter
No Idea
Ukulele
Younger
Instrument
Wanting
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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.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Diaries
Time Work Music
Hobby
Work Time Music
Journals
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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.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Imagine
Consider
Hoped
Sustain
Truthfully
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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.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Phenomenal
Possibility
Life Music Me
Stages
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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.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Sister
Children
Conditions
Discussing
Mother
Social Conditions
Thinking
Always Political Me
Political Me Always
Copy Quote
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 / Singer-Songwriter
Combination
Might
Song
Together
Life Together Me
Autobiographical
Influences
Necessarily
Copy Quote
As you might imagine, I'm approached by lots of organizations and lots of people who want me to support their various charitable efforts in some way. And I look at those requests, and I basically try to do what I can.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Charitable
Imagine
Me Look People
Lots
Efforts
Organizations
Requests
Copy Quote
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.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Chance
Aesthetic
Artistic
Creative
Feels
Path
Willing
Life Path Your
Then
Living
Chances
Take
Matters
Mostly
Right
Sensibilities
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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.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Coltrane
Franklin
Jazz
Records
Talking
Family Music Always
Lots
Aretha
Blues
Jackson
Sang
Sing
Soon
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The way popular music is categorized and formatted cuts down on everyone's options. And although people don't talk about it, there are a lot of issues of race determining musical categories of what's rock, R&B, or even folk. It ends up restricting creativity.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Categories
Popular Music
Music People Way
Cuts
Determining
Folk
Options
Restricting
Copy Quote
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 / Singer-Songwriter
Plenty
Pressure
Succeed
Fail
Outside
Terms
Sing
Stand Up
Copy Quote
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.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Convince
Notion
Broom
Sell
Hammer
In The Past
Toothbrush
Tried
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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.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Freely
Observe
Strongly
Copy Quote
I mentioned that I received a scholarship to Episcopalian school, and the model for the school was 'From each according to his or her ability and to each according to his or her need.' And it's something that is still really important to me in thinking about how I prioritize what I do with my life.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Prioritize
Scholarship
According
Life Thinking Me
Episcopalian
Received
Copy Quote
There are some concerns that are universal. Everyone wants to be loved, and everyone wants to feel like they belong somewhere in the world. Everyone wants to do something and feel like they have a sense of purpose. These are just the things that I think about and the things that make their way into my songwriting.
Tracy Chapman / Singer-Songwriter
Songwriting
Belong
Concerns
Copy Quote

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