Zitat des Tages von Lyle Lovett:
Singing your own songs is all about individual expression.
I've never made a dime from a record sale in the history of my record deal. I've been very happy with my sales, and certainly my audience has been very supportive. I make a living going out and playing shows.
My first performance was in second grade with my friend Rodney Fisher, and we worked up versions of 'Long Tall Texan' and 'I Want to Hold Your Hand.' It gave me a little early confidence that I could actually do this music thing.
I've always worked with people who have been supporters of me creatively.
When I first was trying to play the clubs around Houston to start playing my own songs, songwriters like Eric Taylor and Vince Bell and Townes Van Zandt and Don Sanders were just really encouraging to me and would let me sit in with them during their sets and introduce me to the person that owned and booked the club.
Both my parents worked, so I was home alone a lot, and I would listen to their records. They belonged to the Columbia House record club, so they had records!
A woman comes to a table, and you're supposed to get up. Period. But I don't always do it. In general, you're supposed to do it every time. But sometimes you're seated against the wall, and it's awkward.
It's important to be successful enough to be able to keep doing what you love.
I am limited by what I can think of to do-my choices are not so great.
Fortunately, I've never had a job.
I've been lucky to be able to make the records I've wanted to make. The record company has never pressured me to cut certain songs.
You don't have to have anything in common with people you've known since you were five. With old friends, you've got your whole life in common.
It's difficult to get started-when it comes to dealing with an unknown quantity, people are reluctant to trust their own opinion. It helps if two or three people give you a boost.
Women always go through the door first. Even ardent feminists would admit it's nice. It's not an acknowledgment of women as the weaker sex; it's perhaps an acknowledgment of women as the stronger sex.
I'm really in no danger of being perceived as a famous movie actor!
Somehow you can tell the difference when a song is written just to get on the radio and when what someone does is their whole life. That comes through in Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson. There is no separating their life from their music.
It's really a lot easier to write about things that are problematic. Who wants to hear how happy you are?
I played guitar when I was young and never really considered it as a way to make a living.
Tipping your hat to a lady is good form. If you're at a dinner table, you'd most certainly take your hat off - cowboy hat, baseball hat, or otherwise.
You can't second-guess your audience. You can only do what you think is right. If you do that, your audience will appreciate you.
I enjoyed hearing people do their own songs. I became attracted to singer-songwriters. I became interested in them as people; was curious about what they wanted to say.
Dad often told me, 'My job is to help my boss do his job and make him look good.' That was my dad's objective. Everything about the way he conducted himself was to communicate support for his superiors and respect for his coworkers. The way he dressed was his starting point in that communication.
Growing up, the last thing I ever thought I'd do is be an entertainer.
I've just always written songs in a style that appeal to me personally.
If you forget the words to your own song, you can always claim artistic license. Forget the words to the national anthem, and you're screwed.
The most important thing you can do as a performer is to be yourself, or be an onstage version of yourself. If you're not being true to yourself, and somebody likes that other version of you, you're kind of stuck.
The idea that we humans are good-natured, politically correct, nonjudgmental beings is pure fantasy. We are, at the very least, judgmental.
You're saying something with your appearance whether you mean to or not, so you may as well mean to.
I'm not really a competitive person, and I'm not naturally comfortable in front of people.
I don't feel like I'm on a mission. I'm trying to play music that I like to play and like to listen to.