After it's finished, sometimes I can trace a path that goes back to the possible source of inspiration.
Tracy Chapman

At this point in my life I'd like to live as if only love mattered.
Tracy Chapman

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

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

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

I learn all these things about the record talking about it after it's finished.
Tracy Chapman

I may be revered or defamed and decried; But I tried to live my life right.
Tracy Chapman

I often write either really early in the morning, or really late at night.
Tracy Chapman

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

I'm a hopeful cynic.
Tracy Chapman


Love's a recurring theme through my work.
Tracy Chapman

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

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

Some things remain fragments, just the lyrics and melodies or a line or two or a verse.
Tracy Chapman

Songwriting is a very mysterious process. It feels like creating something from nothing. It's something I don't feel like I really control.
Tracy Chapman

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

We all must live our lives always feeling, always thinking the moment has arrived.
Tracy Chapman

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

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

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