James Taylor Quotes
"Once you get that two-way energy thing going, everyone benefits hugely."
- James Taylor
(Related: Benefits, Energy)
"People should watch out for three things: avoid a major addiction, don't get so deeply into debt that it controls your life, and don't start a family before you're ready to settle down."
- James Taylor
(Related: Family, Life, People, Addiction, Debt)
"Sobering up was responsible for breaking up my marriage. That's what it couldn't stand."
- James Taylor
(Related: Marriage)
"Somehow it helps just to take something that's internal and externalize it, to see it in front of you."
- James Taylor
"Music is like a huge release of tension."
- James Taylor
(Related: Music, Tension)
"The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time."
- James Taylor
(Related: Life, Time)
"There'll come a writing phase where you have to defend the time, unplug the phone and put in the hours to get it done."
- James Taylor
(Related: Time, Writing)
"Time will take your money, but money won't buy time."
- James Taylor
(Related: Money, Time, Will)
"We all have to face pain, and pain makes us grow."
- James Taylor
(Related: Pain)
"When I cleaned up some 17 odd years ago, I felt terrible for about six months. The only thing that gave me any real relief was strenuous physical activity."
- James Taylor
(Related: Months, Years)
"Knowing when to quit is probably a very important thing, but I just am not ready."
- James Taylor
"Certain things in life are more important than the usual crap that everyone strives for."
- James Taylor
(Related: Life)
"You have to choose whether to love yourself or not."
- James Taylor
(Related: Love)
"I started being a songwriter pretending I could do it, and it turned out I could."
- James Taylor
(Related: Being)
"Americans work a long away ahead of themselves because of the size of the place. To make any impact at all you have to promote yourself with live performances ages before a release."
- James Taylor
(Related: Work, Americans)
"Being on a boat that's moving through the water, it's so clear. Everything falls into place in terms of what's important and what's not."
- James Taylor
(Related: Being, Water)
"Fortunately, it doesn't seem to have made a lot of difference to my audience that I'm as bald as a billiard ball!"
- James Taylor
(Related: Difference)
"I believe 100 percent in the power and importance of music."
- James Taylor
(Related: Music, Power, Importance)
"I believe musicians have a duty, a responsibility to reach out, to share your love or pain with others."
- James Taylor
(Related: Love, Duty, Musicians, Pain, Responsibility)
"I can take criticisms but not compliments."
- James Taylor
(Related: Compliments)
"I don't know much about God. But if everything does originate with God, then certainly songs do as well."
- James Taylor
(Related: God, Songs)
"I don't read music. I don't write it. So I wander around on the guitar until something starts to present itself."
- James Taylor
(Related: Music, Guitar, Present)
"I don't think anyone really says anything new."
- James Taylor
"I think people are isolated because of the nature of human consciousness, and they like it when they feel the connection between themselves and someone else."
- James Taylor
(Related: Nature, People, Connection, Consciousness)
"I am myself for a living. I don't animate a character."
- James Taylor
(Related: Character, Living)
"It's probably foolish to expect relationships to go on forever and to say that because something only lasts 10 years, it's a failure."
- James Taylor
(Related: Failure, Relationships, Years)
"If you think my music is sentimental and self-absorbed, I agree with you."
- James Taylor
(Related: Music, Self)
"It's hard to find a way forward. When you're 18 it happens in huge chunks every day, but after 20 years, growth is much more costly."
- James Taylor
(Related: Growth, Day, Years)
"It is the most delightful thing that ever happens to me, when I hear something coming out of my guitar and out of my mouth that wasn't there before."
- James Taylor
(Related: Guitar)
"I don't take compliments very easily. I think most musicians suffer from low self-esteem to some extent."
- James Taylor
(Related: Compliments, Musicians, Self)
"If you're an addict, it controls your life and your life becomes uncontrollable. It's boring and painful, filling your system with something that makes you stare at your shoes for six hours."
- James Taylor
(Related: Life)
"If you feel like singing along, don't."
- James Taylor
(Related: Singing)
"If the gig's going really well, I'm incredibly happy on stage and really feel good about my life and things."
- James Taylor
(Related: Life)
"If I were to try to identify a turning point I'd say that was it - getting clean."
- James Taylor
"I'm very unstable; there's no stability in a musician's life at all. You live on a bus or on the road hand to mouth and you don't know where your money's coming from."
- James Taylor
(Related: Life, Money, Road, Stability)
"I was in chemical jail."
- James Taylor
"I was a functional addict."
- James Taylor
"I think that we're all totally isolated beings and always will be."
- James Taylor
(Related: Will)
"It is a process of discovery. It's being quiet enough and undisturbed enough for a period of time so that the songs can begin to sort of peek out, and you begin to have emotional experiences in a musical way."
- James Taylor
(Related: Time, Being, Discovery, Quiet, Songs)