Patty Griffin Quotes

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Patty Griffin

Profession : Musician

Birth : March 16, 1964

I don't actually have to think very hard when I'm writing. I mean, there are times where it's a task, and you have to plug away and plug away. But then there are times when a song writes itself in 15 minutes, and you're just struggling to keep up with it.

Patty Griffin

I was brought up to express myself only when asked to express myself, and then to do so in a way that's pleasing to hear. But I've always had a need to make my presence known. I was just sort of born that way, I guess. It's my natural tendency.

Patty Griffin

I'm going to be doing solo stuff. The idea is to do 'small' and 'off my beaten path,' or go back to an old, beaten path - do some smaller things that I haven't done in 15 or 20 years. Just to sort of get my feet wet, because I haven't done my own material for a couple of years - I've been doing a lot of other things.

Patty Griffin

One of the great things that I loved about doing solo - which I ended up doing because I was too shy to ever try out for bands back in the day - I could sit there with a list of songs and 'paint away' for the show.

Patty Griffin

Music doesn't have to be fancy. I work hard and enjoy the fact that people want to come to my shows. That's simple, but I'm pretty blue-collar about it.

Patty Griffin

I learned a lot from hanging out with Emmylou Harris. One of the biggest pointers she gave me was that if you don't know the words, drop the consonants: that way, you'll hide the sound.

Patty Griffin

You have this life in this body, and it's really fragile. But what you have inside is what you have to offer, and it's just as important as anyone else's.

Patty Griffin

I have a strong belief in creativity in humans. It's our biggest strength.

Patty Griffin

I come from probably many generations of singers because my grandmother had a really incredible voice and sang in church. And my mother had a gorgeous voice and was always singing around the house.

Patty Griffin

I'm a big James Baldwin fan.

Patty Griffin

One thing I liked about 'Silver Bell' is that I barely knew how to play in the tuning I was writing in, and I just went for it anyway.

Patty Griffin

If you're working on ideas, and you don't know what they are, keep working on them. You don't know what they'll be.

Patty Griffin

A lot of things drew me to Texas. One is the wilderness: It's pretty close to wide open spaces, which I didn't grow up around and I love. You don't have to have a lot of money to have a view: The view is the sky, and it's everywhere.

Patty Griffin

I love Texas itself. The landscape is remarkable. The combination of cultures here is incredible. And the history here is pretty remarkable, too, going back centuries.

Patty Griffin

I have been told that I have been played at - my music's been played at funerals, deaths, births, weddings. Weddings, I find very surprising.

Patty Griffin

One of the things that I have learned in the last few years is to stop being so damn critical of my own work.

Patty Griffin

Personality-wise, I'm much more suited to be in a band and part of an ensemble than I am to lead. I never have been comfortable with the leading thing.

Patty Griffin

I love getting to be onstage with so many great musicians.

Patty Griffin

It doesn't come naturally to me, being the boss and telling people what I want. I find it very taxing and tiring. I love getting to be way down the line in the decision-making chain.

Patty Griffin

I just started going into my room and literally going into my closet and singing into the clothes. Yeah, the Griffin are a really big family, and so I was trying to just sort of get to sing and experiment without bugging a lot of people.

Patty Griffin