Carole King quotes: songwriter extraordinaire with some word gold.
“You’ve got to get up every morning with a smile on your face and show the world all the love in your heart.”
“Do the things you believe in, in the name of love. And know that you aren’t alone. We all have doubts and fears.”
“Once the inspiration comes, that directs where the perspiration goes.”
“When I was younger, I was kind of fearless. I think it takes more courage to do things when you know more. I was completely naïve, and I was like, why can’t I do anything I want to do? You know, go for it.”
“In my career I have never felt that my being a woman was an obstacle or an advantage.”
“I still believe that everyone is beautiful in some way and by seeing the beauty in others we make ourselves more beautiful.”
“I’m like a plant, I reach for the sun.”
“Way over yonder is a place I have seen in a garden of wisdom from some long ago dream.”
“My parents always told me I could be anything I wanted to be.”
“The writing of ‘You’ve Got a Friend’ was one of the most incredible experiences because it was mostly inspiration. It just came to me almost as we hear it.”
“It’s about connections. I want to connect with people; I want to make people think, ‘Yeah, that’s how I feel.’ And if I can do that, that’s an accomplishment.”
“My creativity is an entity unto its own.”
“I’m a songwriter first.”
“I only wanted to be a songwriter. I never wanted to be a singer. And I never wanted to be famous.”
“I’ll tell you what makes songwriters unique. It’s something that I find I share with other songwriters, and I also find I share it with other writers – writers of words and prose and poetry and screenplays. And with visual artists. I think I share it with creative people in general. There’s something that happens from time to time, I guess you’d call it inspiration. It’s a connection with the source of all ideas. Some people call it God. Whatever you call it, it’s the source. And when that happens, you’re sitting at the piano or your keyboard or your computer or your canvas or your camera or whatever, and things just click. They’re coming through you. They’re not necessarily coming from you. And you feel it when that happens. You’re connected to the source of all ideas. You have to be open to experience that, and creative people, certainly songwriters, open themselves in that way. I don’t know if that makes us different from other people in a way where you say, ‘Oh, I’m better or I’m worse or I feel more pain.’ I think everybody feels these things in some way at some time in their life. I think when you’re grieving, when you’re crying, you’re open in the same way. Someone who’s lost a loved one and is feeling the pain of grief – they’re in touch with the source of all ideas in the same way. So it’s an openness.”
“As creative people, the thing that we have to break through is people who are closed, people who are fearful of opening up. Because if you’re open, you might feel pain. I don’t look for pain, but I don’t think pain is something to fear; although we do. It’s built into our human nature to fear pain. But if you can overcome the fear and say, ‘It is what it is. There’s joy and there’s pain, and I want to feel all of it,’ that’s kind of what my choice in life has been. I’d rather be a person who’s open, and if I get hurt, I get hurt. So be it. I’ll pick myself up and I’ll move on, and be open again. So I can feel joy, too.”
“Taking enough time to immerse myself in life as opposed to the active creative process – in other words, I’ll take long periods of time off from songwriting so I can actually be living my life. I think that’s part of what keeps you fresh and creative. So that when I’m ready to write a song, I’m really ready.”
“All writers are writers of prose as well. I have found that the key to not being blocked is to not worry about it. Ever.”
“If you are sitting down and you feel that you want to write and nothing is coming, you get up and do something else. Then you come back again and try it again. But you do it in a relaxed manner. Trust that it will be there. If it ever was once and you’ve ever done it once, it will be back. It always comes back and the only thing that is a problem is when you get in your own way worrying about it.”
“Once the inspiration comes… that directs where the work goes. Because there’s a lot of hard work involved in songwriting. The inspiration part is where it comes through you, but once it comes through you, the shaping of it, the craft of it, is something that I pride myself in knowing how to do it.”
“That’s one of the things I love about being a songwriter first, last and always, because whether I do it or not, if someone does a great job on it, my work is done.”
“One of the things that I try to be conscious about in crafting a song is the concept of bringing it home. I like to bring it somewhere familiar, someplace that people feel it’s resolved, it’s settled.”
“I just do what I do and assume it’s going to be well received if I’m good at it.”
“I just sort of try to be a good person; try to write music that lifts people and makes me feel good to sing.”
“Performing wasn’t something to fear; it was merely a larger circle of collaboration. The more I communicated my joy to the audience, the more joy they communicated back to me.”
“Not only do you want to leave the audience wanting more, you want to leave yourself wanting more.”
“Today’s records, even though they may be lyrically repetitive and not saying anything particularly heavy, they have energy.”
“I just want to give it all that I got. I just don’t want to waste it.”
“I’m ambitious for success to the extent that I want my work to be appreciated by as many people as possible. But other than that I’m just as happy to concentrate on the process, to concentrate on experiencing life outside of being a rock performer, and if record sales suffer as a result, so be it.”
“It’s the same thing that sends the music through me – it came through me in ‘You’ve Got a Friend,’ comes through me in every song I write. I can feel it now, it’s the same energy, but apparently it wants me to write a novel, so I’m writing a novel.”
“Empowerment, not power. Empowerment is what I’m about right now.”
“When I wake up every morning, I smile and say, ‘Thank you.’ Because out of my window I can see the mountains, then I go hiking with my dog and share her bounding joy in the world.”
“I’m really in a place where I’m not trying to be anything other than what I am.”
“I’ve had a remarkable life. I seem to be in such good places at the right time. You know, if you were to ask me to sum my life up in one word? Gratitude.”
“Get up and dance, get up and smile, get up and drink to the days that are gone in the shortest while.”
