Tracy Chapman Quotes

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Tracy Chapman

Profession : Musician

Birth : March 30, 1964

My first record was almost not my first record.

Tracy Chapman

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

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

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

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

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

That's one of the things I like about San Francisco. It's not like anywhere else in the world.

Tracy Chapman

I decided to do whatever I could to make sure the business side of music didn't intrude on the creative part.

Tracy Chapman

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

I could make records at home in a vacuum, but that is not the situation. I'm just taking it one phase at a time.

Tracy Chapman

I won't get into it any more than to say that there are parts of me in all the songs that I write.

Tracy Chapman

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

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