James Taylor
21 quotes
Biography
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.
"That's the motivation of an artist - to seek attention of some kind."
"I'm glad about what's happening to the music business. This last crop of people we had in the 90s, who are going away now, they didn't like music. They didn't trust musicians. They wanted something else from it."
"Though 'Fire and Rain' is very personal, for other people it resonates as a sort of commonly held experience... And that's what happens with me. I write things for personal reasons, and then in some cases it... can be a shared experience."
"I know there are people who don't like their audience or like the experience of being recognized or celebrated, but my audience has been very good - they don't bother me and when they do contact me it's usually on the nicest possible terms."
"Performing is a profound experience, at least for me. It's not as if I sit down and play 'Fire and Rain' by myself, just to hear it again. But to offer it up... the energy that it somehow summons live takes me right back, and I do get a reconnection to the emotions."
"Performing is a profound experience, at least for me."
"It's probably foolish to expect relationships to go on forever and to say that because something only lasts 10 years, it's a failure."
"People should watch out for three things: avoid a major addiction, don't get so deeply into debt that it controls your life, and don't start a family before you're ready to settle down."
"Sobering up was responsible for breaking up my marriage. That's what it couldn't stand."
"Time will take your money, but money won't buy time."
"I'm very unstable there's no stability in a musician's life at all. You live on a bus or on the road hand to mouth and you don't know where your money's coming from."
"I don't read music. I don't write it. So I wander around on the guitar until something starts to present itself."
"Music is like a huge release of tension."
"I believe 100 percent in the power and importance of music."
"If you think my music is sentimental and self-absorbed, I agree with you."
"Music is my living. I enjoy selling my music."
"I'm glad about what's happening to the music business. This last crop of people we had in the 90s, who are going away now, they didn't like music. They didn't trust musicians. They wanted something else from it."
"I find it a lot healthier for me to be someplace where I can go outside in my bare feet."
"I was a huge Beatles fan. We could talk about who I listened to growing up and what my sources were, but certainly the Beatles were a late, important resource for me, and I just took my guitar and a handful of songs, and I decided, well, I'll just go over and travel around Europe and see what comes of it."
"When you write a song, it may come from a personal space, but it very seldom actually represents you. It comes out of a sort of mood of melancholy, somehow. It's almost theatrical."
"I have a love-hate relationship with the Grammys because I don't see the music world as a competitive sport."