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Tracy Chapman [1964-0] American

Rank: 101
Musician, Singer-songwriter

Tracy Chapman is an American singer-songwriter, known for her hits "Fast Car" and "Give Me One Reason", along with other singles "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution", "Baby Can I Hold You", "Crossroads", "New Beginning" and "Telling Stories".

Religion, Chance, Dreams, Experience, Hope, Morning, Music, Success, Technology

Quote	Tags	Rank
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.	Music	101
I picked up the guitar at 11, but even before then, I was writing songs on the organ.		102
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.		103
Songwriting is a very mysterious process. It feels like creating something from nothing. It's something I don't feel like I really control.		104
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.	Technology	105
I'm still thinking and hoping there's an opportunity for people to have better lives and that significant change can occur.		106
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.		107
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.	Success	108
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.	Experience, Hope	109
Music was never just a hobby for me. I'd pick up a guitar every day to work on whatever I was writing at the time. I would put my ideas in songs the way some people might put them in diaries or journals.		110
There are good reasons for being in jail - for protesting.		111
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?'		112
At this point in my life I'd like to live as if only love mattered.		113
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.		114
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.		115
I often write either really early in the morning, or really late at night.	Morning	116
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.		117
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.	Dreams	118
I'm a hopeful cynic.		119
We all must live our lives always feeling, always thinking the moment has arrived.		120
You have to pay attention to the moment and make it the best it can be for you. I've been trying to do that. It's really made a major difference for me. I'm a happier person.		121
I think it's important, if you are an artist, to use your music to stand up for what you believe in.		122
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.		123
So much has happened to obscure the dialogue about race and about gender and discrimination in general, especially where those things touch on economics.		124
I love living in California and being able to go to the beach or go to the woods.		125
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.		126
I think religion played a huge part in Bush's re-election.	Religion	201
I may be revered or defamed and decried; But I tried to live my life right.		202
After it's finished, sometimes I can trace a path that goes back to the possible source of inspiration.		203
I learn all these things about the record talking about it after it's finished.		204
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!		205
Love's a recurring theme through my work.		206
Some things remain fragments, just the lyrics and melodies or a line or two or a verse.		207
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.		208
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.		209
Growing up in Cleveland, I learned about singing from my mother, who had once sung professionally and who admired Mahalia Jackson and Aretha Franklin.		210
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.		211
I don't try to project any image at all, other than the person that I am.		212
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.		213
What does the future look like if the heads of society ask our young people to risk their lives for questionable causes? I think it looks rather bleak.		214
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.		215
If you are living a life that feels right to you, if you're willing to take creative chances or a creative path that feels like it's mostly in keeping with your sensibilities, you know, aesthetic and artistic, then that's what matters.	Chance	216
As a child, I spent a lot of time at the library.		217
I think many people would say that writers like Stephen King have hypergraphia.		218
I'm not sure about anything as far as religion and spirituality go.	Religion	219
It's fun playing small venues.		220
I don't know - I'm not sure about anything as far as religion and spirituality go.	Religion	221
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.		222

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