Quotes from Amanda Shires

Instinct is still important, but now I can easily identify problems like cliches and mixed metaphors, and I have a broader palette to work off of.

I had no idea I was gonna be a songwriter, because I was too young to know my own evolution. I started playing the violin as a way to express myself because I didn't have a lot of vocabulary when I was 14.

I feel like there's so many voices, and it's necessary for there to be a lot of different voices because we can't all like the same art. That would just be so boring... If anybody wants to hear it, I'm here. It makes for a more interesting world for there to be more than one kind of singer.

When you name a beast, sometimes it makes it less bestial.

People like to say their songs are like children, but you gotta get those kids out there so they can make some money and pay the rent.

I was in a plane that lost an engine flying from Dallas to England. It happened over the Newfoundland Sea, and it was dark, and they took away our drinks, and it was scary. I thought I was gonna die.

I try my best to not just avoid cliches but to write with some meaning.

Writing in my closet, it's a small space but it made a lot of room in my mind.

At about 33 weeks along in my pregnancy, the doctor suggested that I stay pretty close to home and not be touring and flying around. I was really left to face the kind of deep thinking that comes along with being a mother and bringing a child into the world.

I'm well-read as far as literary fiction, but I wanted to make better decisions about my writing, to use words or phrases more confidently by learning how your words can be interpreted, the shades of meaning, the different connotations.

I have no choice in what direction my music goes, honestly, as all I get is what I'm given. I start writing the songs, and they start presenting themselves the way they want to be heard.

Sometimes something opens up in your brain as I'm writing, thinking about the song, and it's like a whirlwind. It all comes together and I could hear what I wanted the songs to sound like, I just didn't know how to express it.

I consider myself more of a rock 'n' roll fiddler.

It's weird to take your work into a room and everybody reads it. Then comes the terror part, the dissection.

The thing that I'm trying to accomplish is to tell the stories and my feelings in ways that are relatable. But at the same time, I'm so tired of hearing the same old crap. Bring some freshness if you can.

I wasn't getting any work as a songwriter in Texas because I was only known as a fiddle player.

Always have two radar detectors. One to see if there are any cops around, and the second one to make sure there aren't any cops around.

Of course, life experience changes and adds to writing. And observations change too, where you put yourself in relation to other people.

Sometimes you write songs that don't all fit together. What do you, just throw them away? This might be a chance for growth and learning. It could be a horrible fall-on-your-face kind of experiment.

After the Texas Playboys and during that time, I had this band in college that I was in called Thrift Store Cowboys. It was me and a couple other dudes would write the songs.

When I'm outside gardening, it can be so inspiring. I think of words and melodies. It's peaceful. Every singer-songwriter should find something outside of music that makes them as happy as gardening makes me.

I can't sing like Aretha Franklin as much as I wish I could. And I don't sing like Etta James and the Judds as much as I wish I could.

I write really slowly, and my lines are really, really terrible all the time. It takes so long for me to get them to be where I won't be embarrassed to sing them, and then feel like they're great.

I started school because I felt like, as a songwriter, I was operating solely on instinct, and I was having a hard time deciding exactly what words I wanted to use. I felt like I wanted to be a writer, and being a curious person, school felt like a way to solve the problems I was having with my own work.