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
A lot of kids spent more time out of school than in, but I always loved school and thought it was my way out of Cleveland, and out of poverty. – 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
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
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
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
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 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
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
I meet people in my daily life, people who seem to experience some change and some growth on a personal level, and that gives me hope. – Tracy Chapman
Some things remain fragments, just the lyrics and melodies or a line or two or a verse. – Tracy Chapman
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
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
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
I think of the audience the way I would think of another person: You meet someone, then you take it from there; you see what’s interesting to both of you. – 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
I think it’s important, if you are an artist, to use your music to stand up for what you believe in. – Tracy Chapman
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
I never assumed I would have that commercial success, so it was a total surprise. And honestly, I never assumed that it would ever happen again. – 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
I’m still thinking and hoping there’s an opportunity for people to have better lives and that significant change can occur. – Tracy Chapman
