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Home
Authors
James Taylor
Musician
About the author
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,
Musician
#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,
Musician
#Difference
I believe 100 percent in the power and importance of music.
James Taylor,
Musician
#Power
#Music
#Importance
I believe musicians have a duty, a responsibility to reach out, to share your love or pain with others.
James Taylor,
Musician
#Love
#Responsibility
#Musicians
#Duty
#Pain
I can take criticisms but not compliments.
James Taylor,
Musician
#Compliments
I don't know much about God. But if everything does originate with God, then certainly songs do as well.
James Taylor,
Musician
#Songs
#God
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,
Musician
#Present
#Music
#Guitar
I don't think anyone really says anything new.
James Taylor,
Musician
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,
Musician
#People
#Nature
#Consciousness
#Connection
I am myself for a living. I don't animate a character.
James Taylor,
Musician
#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,
Musician
#Relationships
#Years
#Failure
If you think my music is sentimental and self-absorbed, I agree with you.
James Taylor,
Musician
#Self
#Music
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,
Musician
#Years
#Day
#Growth
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,
Musician
#Guitar
I don't take compliments very easily. I think most musicians suffer from low self-esteem to some extent.
James Taylor,
Musician
#Self
#Musicians
#Compliments
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,
Musician
#Life
If you feel like singing along, don't.
James Taylor,
Musician
#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,
Musician
#Life
If I were to try to identify a turning point I'd say that was it - getting clean.
James Taylor,
Musician
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,
Musician
#Life
#Money
#Road
#Stability
I was in chemical jail.
James Taylor,
Musician
I was a functional addict.
James Taylor,
Musician
I think that we're all totally isolated beings and always will be.
James Taylor,
Musician
#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,
Musician
#Songs
#Time
#Being
#Quiet
#Discovery
That's the motivation of an artist - to seek attention of some kind.
James Taylor,
Musician
#Attention
#Artist
#Motivation
Once you get that two-way energy thing going, everyone benefits hugely.
James Taylor,
Musician
#Energy
#Benefits
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,
Musician
#Life
#People
#Family
#Debt
#Addiction
Sobering up was responsible for breaking up my marriage. That's what it couldn't stand.
James Taylor,
Musician
#Marriage
Somehow it helps just to take something that's internal and externalize it, to see it in front of you.
James Taylor,
Musician
Music is like a huge release of tension.
James Taylor,
Musician
#Music
#Tension
The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.
James Taylor,
Musician
#Time
#Life
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,
Musician
#Time
#Writing
Time will take your money, but money won't buy time.
James Taylor,
Musician
#Time
#Will
#Money
We all have to face pain, and pain makes us grow.
James Taylor,
Musician
#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,
Musician
#Years
#Months
Knowing when to quit is probably a very important thing, but I just am not ready.
James Taylor,
Musician
Certain things in life are more important than the usual crap that everyone strives for.
James Taylor,
Musician
#Life
You have to choose whether to love yourself or not.
James Taylor,
Musician
#Love
I started being a songwriter pretending I could do it, and it turned out I could.
James Taylor,
Musician
#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,
Musician
#Work
#Americans