Top 33 Lyricist Quotes

As a lyricist, I’m really trying to raise my level of quality.

I have a fondness for words. On that note, I don’t consider my lyrics to be all that great. I like to call myself a supplier of words rather than a lyricist.

I think I’m a good lyricist.

I was an underground rapper and only 16 years old, a freshman at high school. Bang thought I had potential as a rapper and lyricist, and we went from there. Then Suga joined us.

As far as I’m concerned, collaboration is the essence of life. It’s wonderful to be able to have talents, and, very often, we think that we know what our talents are, or we find out through a back door that we have a talent. I know that I found out I was a lyricist quite through a back door.

Prabhu Deva has written the opening lines for a couple of songs in ‘Vedi.’ He’s a great lyricist too and not many people know that.

Nothing against Nicki Minaj – I think she’s a dope lyricist, and her body is perfect, along with a dope personality. But I’m more into a woman who’s not so much into the spotlight.

I love a good lyricist – always have. The thing that inspired me most was the different performers, like Tina Turner, James Brown, Michael Jackson, Madonna, even Janet Jackson.

I like songs to mean something as well as sound good, and Paul Simon is a maestro. While Art Garfunkel was a voice and moved on to other things Simon remained the genius lyricist and composer.

I don’t consider myself just a rapper or just a singer. I’m a music producer, lyricist. I’m a poet as well, and acting is also a part of big entertainment.

Drake, I’d like to collaborate with. He’s a phenomenal lyricist. Probably the best rapper in the world at the moment. I love Kanye but there’s something about Drake; he’s more straight up, really clever and really poetic and metaphorical – I love that. He’s just clever.

In the beginning of Audioslave, I was very honest. I said, ‘We make great albums and write great albums – but don’t be under the impression I’m going to be a lyricist that writes anything other than what strikes me as inspiring in the moment.’ The lyrics weren’t going to be focused politically.

As a lyricist, you love to hear other great lyrics or other great concepts.

In many ways, a song-writing partnership is like a marriage. Apart from just liking each other, a lyricist and a composer should be able to spend long periods of time together – around the clock if need be – without getting on each other’s nerves. Their goals, outlooks, and basic philosophies should be similar.

I feel like I want to write some songs and I don’t know how to go about doing it. Usually it’s the lyrics that are a problem, and I think I am not really cut out to be a lyricist.

To me hip-hop is a culture and I became an MC to be recognized as a dope lyricist. That’s what I wanted to be recognized as. So when I’m writing rhymes I always take it very seriously.

I don’t want to work on a musical if I’m not the lyricist.

I feel like I really tapped into a pretty honest emotional place for myself as a lyricist. There’s a broad spectrum of emotions.

You have to write some poetry, first of all, to decide if you can become a lyricist. I was born in a family of poets.

I think, with music, I’m a lyricist who talks about real life things.

One thing a lyricist must learn is not to fall in love with his own lines. Once you learn that, you can walk away from the lyric and look at it with a reasonable degree of objectivity.

What is so beautiful about a composer and a lyricist is that their job is to push a story along and not halt it.

You could be the best lyricist or rapper or songwriter, if you ain’t mentally prepared to put in the work, it’s a waste of time.

I still recall how nervous I was when I went for the recording of ‘Guzarish’… When I reached the studio, all of them were there – Rahman, Aamir Khan, lyricist Prasoon Joshi and director A.R. Murugadoss.

I think I’m alright as a lyricist, you know? But then what will happen every couple of months or so is that I’ll hear a song I’ve never heard before and feel I’ve gone right back to square one.

I listened to a lot of Joni Mitchell in high school. She was sort of an inspiration to me. I think she’s a great lyricist, and she makes interesting choices.

We all try to increase our length of life, but we all have to pass. It’s highly interesting as a lyricist.

I didn’t feel like I was allowed to be a songwriter. I thought I had to be a really intelligent lyricist, like a poet.

I just think it was because I was known as a lyricist that’s what people only wanted to hear that from me. If you’re an artist you have to expand, you have to grow.

There is no dearth of talented lyricists and I know many of them don’t get an opportunity. After I received success, many of them approached me via e-mail or phone calls to tell me about their work. If I feel that a song written by a lyricist is fit for a film on which I am working as a composer, I give them the break.

I think Damian Lillard is the best lyricist to be in the NBA or play basketball.

As a writer, as a lyricist, you’re just trying to make sure that you’re not repeating yourself. And that’s a danger for a lot of people. So for me, I just try to keep taking corners and trying to find new paths.

Howard Ashman was an amazing lyricist and an amazing artist.