“
If she's amazing, she won't be easy. If she's easy, she won't be amazing. If she's worth it, you wont give up. If you give up, you're not worthy. ... Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.
”
”
Bob Marley (Bob Marley: Guitar Chord Songbook (Guitar Chord Songbooks))
“
She would be half a planet away, floating in a turquoise sea, dancing by moonlight to flamenco guitar.
”
”
Janet Fitch (White Oleander)
“
The future for me is already a thing of the past -
You were my first love and you will be my last
”
”
Bob Dylan (Bob Dylan - Love and Theft: Piano/Vocal/Guitar)
“
Do I love you because you're beautiful, or are you beautiful because I love you?
”
”
Richard Rodgers (Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella Piano, Vocal and Guitar Chords)
“
You've no right to walk into people's castles and take their guitars.
”
”
Diana Wynne Jones (Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl’s Moving Castle, #1))
“
The way you walk, way you talk, way you say my name; it's beautiful, wonderful, don't you ever change.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
We should love, not fall in love, because everything that falls, gets broken.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
Music is never about music. If it was, we'd be writing songs about guitars. But we don't. We write songs about women.
Women will crush you, you know? I suppose everybody hurts everybody, but women always seem to get back up, you ever notice that? Women are always still standing.
”
”
Taylor Jenkins Reid (Daisy Jones & The Six)
“
There once was a girl who found herself dead.
She peered over the ledge of heaven
and saw that back on earth
her sister missed her too much,
was way too sad,
so she crossed some paths
that would not have crossed,
took some moments in her hand
shook them up
and spilled them like dice
over the living world.
It worked.
The boy with the guitar collided
with her sister.
"There you go, Len," she whispered. "The rest is up to you.
”
”
Jandy Nelson (The Sky Is Everywhere)
“
Say you’ll marry me when I come back or, before God, I won’t go. I’ll stay around here and play a guitar under your window every night and sing at the top of my voice and compromise you, so you’ll have to marry me to save your reputation.
”
”
Margaret Mitchell (Gone with the Wind)
“
You couldn't not like someone who liked the guitar.
”
”
Stephen King (The Stand)
“
Of course, it is very important to be sober when you take an exam. Many worthwhile careers in the street-cleansing, fruit-picking and subway-guitar-playing industries have been founded on a lack of understanding of this simple fact.
”
”
Terry Pratchett (Moving Pictures (Discworld, #10; Industrial Revolution, #1))
“
The success I've achieved comes to me from God
”
”
Justin Bieber (Justin Bieber - My World Piano, Vocal and Guitar Chords)
“
If I only have ten minutes, Sam, this is what I want to say. You're not the best of us. You're more than that. You're better than all of us. If I only have ten minutes, I would tell you to go out there and live. I'd say...please take your guitar and sing your songs to as many people as you can. Please fold a thousand more of those damn birds of yours. Please kiss that girl a million times.
”
”
Maggie Stiefvater (Forever (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #3))
“
I'll bet she's beautiful, that girl he talks about, and she's got everything that I have to live without... He's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar, the only one who's got enough of me to break my heart. He's the song in the car I keep singing; don't know why I do.
”
”
Taylor Swift
“
I've got my girl and my guitar, and for me that's enough.
”
”
Tiffanie DeBartolo (How to Kill a Rock Star)
“
There are two ways you can go with pain: You can let it destroy you or you can use it as fuel to drive you…
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
Bring on all the pretenders!
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift - Speak Now Songbook: Piano/Vocal/Guitar)
“
One less lonely girl
”
”
Justin Bieber (Justin Bieber - My World Piano, Vocal and Guitar Chords)
“
Don’t worry. You may think you’ll never get over it. But you also thought it would last forever.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
Don't say you're sorry, 'cause I'm not even breaking. You're not worth the time that this is taking.
”
”
Demi Lovato (Demi Lovato - Here We Go Again Piano, Vocal and Guitar Chords)
“
My emotions overload because there is no hand to hold, there’s no shoulder here to lean on; I’m walking all on my own.
”
”
Christina Aguilera (Christina Aguilera - Back to Basics Piano, Vocal and Guitar Chords)
“
I'm shining like fireworks over your sad, empty town
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift - Fearless Songbook: Piano/Vocal/Guitar Artist)
“
I’m sorry for blaming you for everything I just couldn’t do, and I’ve hurt myself by hurting you.
”
”
Christina Aguilera (Christina Aguilera - Back to Basics Piano, Vocal and Guitar Chords)
“
and you come away with a great little story of a mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift - Fearless Songbook: Piano/Vocal/Guitar Artist)
“
So to you, or anyone else who has spent four minutes on me in some way-- listening to just one song, or watching one of my videos….Thank you. I love you like I love sparkles and having the last word. And that's real love.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
You’re probably better at math than I am, because pretty much everyone’s better at math than I am, but it’s okay, I’m fine with it. See, I excel at other, more important things—guitar, sex, and consistently disappointing my dad, to name a few.
”
”
Jennifer Niven (All the Bright Places)
“
I play until my fingers are blue and stiff from the cold, and then I keep on playing. Until I'm lost in the music. Until I am the music--notes and chords, the melody and harmony. It hurts, but it's okay because when I'm the music, I'm not me. Not sad. Not afraid. Not desperate. Not guilty.
”
”
Jennifer Donnelly (Revolution)
“
Unique and different is the new generation of beautiful…
You dont have to be like everybody else. In fact I don’t think you should.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
This machine kills fascists.
”
”
Woody Guthrie
“
Never believe anyone who tells you that you don't deserve what you want.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
I held out the painting of the cat and the snake.
“It’s a cat and a snake,” Thoth said.
Thank you, god of wisdom. You placed it for us to find, didn’t you? You’re trying to give us some sort of clue.”
“Who, me?”
Just kill him, Horus said.
Shut up, I said.
At least kill the guitar.
”
”
Rick Riordan (The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles, #1))
“
I don't think you should wait. I think you should speak now.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift - Speak Now Songbook: Piano/Vocal/Guitar)
“
The history of music is mortal, but the idiocy of the guitar is eternal.
”
”
Milan Kundera (The Book of Laughter and Forgetting)
“
It's alright, just wait and see, your string of lights is still bright to me. Who you are is not where you've been. You're still an innocent. It's okay life is a tough crowd, 32 is still growing up now.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift - Speak Now Songbook: Piano/Vocal/Guitar)
“
Here I was again tonight forcing laughter, faking smiles
Same old tired, lonely place
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift - Speak Now Songbook: Piano/Vocal/Guitar)
“
Have I mentioned how hot Michael is? Hot, hot, hot. I mean, all guitar players are crushworthy - it's like it's issued with the talent - but I've been noticing lately that he is total Hottie McHottie of Hotland. Not that I could tell him that. Luckily, he is a boy. Hence, too dense to figure out why I'm staring at his ass.
”
”
Rachel Caine (Glass Houses (The Morganville Vampires, #1))
“
Mia's smile is melting chocolate. It's a kick-ass guitar solo. It's everything good in this world.
”
”
Gayle Forman (Where She Went (If I Stay, #2))
“
Most of the members of the convent were old-fashioned Satanists, like their parents and grandparents before them. They'd been brought up to it, and weren't, when you got right down to it, particularly evil. Human beings mostly aren't. They just get carried away by new ideas, like dressing up in jackboots and shooting people, or dressing up in white sheets and lynching people, or dressing up in tie-dye jeans and playing guitars at people. Offer people a new creed with a costume and their hearts and minds will follow. Anyway, being brought up as a Satanist tended to take the edge off it. It was something you did on Saturday nights.
And the rest of the time you simply got on with life as best you could, just like everyone else.
”
”
Terry Pratchett (Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch)
“
those times i burned my guitar it was like a sacrifice. we all burn things we love. i love my guitar
”
”
Jimi Hendrix
“
To sing you must first open your mouth. You must have a pair of lungs, and a little knowledge of music. It is not necessary to have an accordion, or a guitar. The essential thing is to want to sing. This then is a song. I am singing.
”
”
Henry Miller (Tropic of Cancer (Tropic, #1))
“
Keeping your emotions all locked up is something that’s unfair to you. When you clearly know how you feel. You should say it.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them.
”
”
Brian Eno (A Year With Swollen Appendices)
“
There’s nothing more dangerous than a boy with charm.
”
”
Christina Aguilera (Christina Aguilera - Back to Basics Piano, Vocal and Guitar Chords)
“
Everybody is a stranger, but that's the danger in going my own way.
”
”
John Mayer (John Mayer - Battle Studies: Easy Guitar with Notes & Tab (Ez Guitar With Riffs and Tab))
“
Beauty is sincerity.There are so many different ways someone can be beautiful.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
Lend me your hand and we'll conquer them all
But lend me your heart and I'll just let you fall
Lend me your eyes I can change what you see
But your soul you must keep, totally free
”
”
Mumford & Sons (Mumford & Sons: Sigh No More: Piano/Vocal/Guitar Artist Songbook)
“
The guitar," I said, "will only obey its master."
"Yeah," Cole agreed, "but Grace isn't here." He grinned at me slyly.
”
”
Maggie Stiefvater (Forever (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #3))
“
She reminds him of every good day he's ever had. Every summer spent in fields of grass. Every sunrise. Every sunset. She tastes like dew and smells like light. And when she speaks, it's like someone slowly plucking the strings of a guitar, a sadly beautiful song starting to play, all his own. And he loves her.
”
”
pleasefindthis (Intentional Dissonance)
“
I think I fell in love with words before I fell in love with music.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
I'm hungry for a juicy life. I lean out my window at night and I can taste it out there, just waiting for me.
”
”
Brigid Lowry (Guitar Highway Rose)
“
Look at what you've done, you're losing me is what you've won. Got me planning to go solo
”
”
Demi Lovato (Demi Lovato - Here We Go Again Piano, Vocal and Guitar Chords)
“
I rode an elevator with a guy who was whistling the tune of 'this is the song that never ends'. Putting that on me? Come on dude..
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
Kishan spoke intently, "Kelsey is all that a man could ask for. She's perfect for you. She loves poetry and sits endlessly content while listening to you sing and play your guitar. She waited months for you to come after her, and she has risked her life repeatedly to save your mangy white hide. She's sweet and loving and warm and beautiful and would make you immeasurably happy."
There was a pause. Then I heard Ren say incredulously, "You love her."
Kishan didn't answer right away, but then said softly, almost so I couldn't hear it, "No man in his right mind wouldn't, which proves you aren't in your right mind.
”
”
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Quest (The Tiger Saga, #2))
“
A few years have gone and come around when we were sittin' at our favorite spot in town and you looked at me, got down on one knee. Take me back to the time when we walked down the aisle; the whole town came and our mammas cried. And you said "I do.", and I did, too. Take me home where we met so many years before; we'll rock our babies on the very front porch. After all this time, you and I. And I'll be eighty-seven you'll be eighty-nine, I'll still look at you like the stars that shine. In the sky. Oh, my my my.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
That’s always the hardest thing when someone completely has you fooled so much, that you think they’re just never going to hurt you, then they do. That’s when you get the worst heartbreak.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
Never never never compare yourself to the beautiful girls. There's always someone gorgeous who will make you feel like you're not. It's a total confidence buster!
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
It's not quite love and it's not quite community; it's just this feeling that there are people, an abundance of people, who are in this together. Who are on your team. When the check is paid and you stay at the table. When it's four A.M. and no one goes to bed. That night with the guitar. That night we can't remember. That time we did, we went , we saw, we laughed, we felt. The hats.
”
”
Marina Keegan (The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories)
“
To be unbroken, what would that be?
If words that were spoken, had not shattered me
”
”
Zoegirl (ZOEgirl: Different Kind of Free: Piano/Vocal/Guitar)
“
When we meet someone and we fall in love we don’t ever imagine that it’s going to end.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
When I was in high school, I remember seeing girls crying in the bathroom every Monday about what they did that weekend. I never wanted to be that girl crying in the bathroom.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
Be yourself. There is no one better.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
And for once a band of thieves in ripped up jeans got to rule the world
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift - Speak Now Songbook: Piano/Vocal/Guitar)
“
The words. I love words. I love to write. Being an artist is what I love.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
In any relationship each person should support the other; they should lift the other up.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
But I will hold on hope
And I won't let you choke
On the noose around your neck
And I'll find strength in pain
And I will change my ways
I'll know my name as it's called again
”
”
Mumford & Sons (Mumford & Sons: Sigh No More: Piano/Vocal/Guitar Artist Songbook)
“
My parents raised me to never feel like I was entitled to success.That you have to work for it. You have to work so hard for it. And sometimes then you don't even get where you need to go.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
Reese sucked in a breath and played faster, hurling the anger through his fingers until it spun all his
fear, all his rage, into the gentle voice of music.
”
”
Willowy Whisper (This Hostile Land)
“
She's not my girlfriend. We're just friends," I said automatically.
"Shut up. You're so whipped I should buy you a saddle." Which he would've said about any girl I talked to, talked about, or even looked at in the hall.
"She's not. Nothing's happened. We just hang out."
"You're so full of crap, you could pass for a toilet. You like her, Wate. Admit it." Link wasn't big on subtleties, and I don't think he could imagine hanging out with a girl for any reason other than maybe she played lead guitar, except for the obvious ones.
”
”
Kami Garcia (Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles, #1))
“
I've apparently been the victim of growing up, which apparently happens to all of us at one point or another. It's been going on for quite some time now, without me knowing it. I've found that growing up can mean a lot of things. For me, it doesn't mean I should become somebody completely new and stop loving the things I used to love. It means I've just added more things to my list. Like for example, I'm still beyond obsessed with the winter season and I still start putting up strings of lights in September. I still love sparkles and grocery shopping and really old cats that are only nice to you half the time. I still love writing in my journal and wearing dresses all the time and staring at chandeliers. But some new things I've fallen in love with -- mismatched everything. Mismatched chairs, mismatched colors, mismatched personalities. I love spraying perfumes I used to wear when I was in high school. It brings me back to the days of trying to get a close parking spot at school, trying to get noticed by soccer players, and trying to figure out how to avoid doing or saying anything uncool, and wishing every minute of every day that one day maybe I'd get a chance to win a Grammy. Or something crazy and out of reach like that. ;) I love old buildings with the paint chipping off the walls and my dad's stories about college. I love the freedom of living alone, but I also love things that make me feel seven again. Back then naivety was the norm and skepticism was a foreign language, and I just think every once in a while you need fries and a chocolate milkshake and your mom. I love picking up a cookbook and closing my eyes and opening it to a random page, then attempting to make that recipe. I've loved my fans from the very first day, but they've said things and done things recently that make me feel like they're my friends -- more now than ever before. I'll never go a day without thinking about our memories together.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
And it only hurts when I'm breathing
My heart only breaks when it's beating
My dreams only die when I'm dreaming
So, I hold my breath--to forget
”
”
Shania Twain (Shania Twain - Up! Piano, Vocal and Guitar Chords)
“
I think that personality traits that come through when somebody is really sincere is what makes them beautiful.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
When you’re singing you can hear the echo of people in the audience singing every single word with you, and that was that big dream that I had for myself. It’s happening.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
I thought I knew who you were, but I see now you were a lesson to learn, and all I am to you now is a bridge that’s been burned.
”
”
Christina Aguilera (Christina Aguilera - Back to Basics Piano, Vocal and Guitar Chords)
“
With your face and your beautiful eyes and the coversations with the little white lies and the faded picture of a beautiful lie you carry me from your car up the stairs,and I broke down crying was she worth this mess? After everything and that little black dress.After everything i must confess...I need you <3'':)
-Taylor Swift
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift - Fearless Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
I’m addicted to your allure and I’m fiending for a cure.
”
”
Christina Aguilera (Christina Aguilera - Stripped (Piano/Vocal/guitar Artist Songbook))
“
I write songs that are like diary entries. I have to do it to feel sane.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
I don't need a telescope to see that there's hope, and that makes me feel brave.
”
”
Owl City (Owl City - Ocean Eyes Piano, Vocal and Guitar Chords)
“
Living alone, you can do so many fantastic things I’ve learned. You can like, walk around and have so many conversations with yourself and sing your thoughts. I think I’m the only one that does that…
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
Live your life like you're 80 looking back on your teenager years. You know if your dad calls you at eight in the morning and asks if you want to go out for breakfast. As a teenager you're like no, I want to sleep. But as an eighty year old looking back you have that breakfast with your dad. It just little things like that, that helped me when I was a teenager in terms of making choices you won't regret.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
Come on you target for faraway laughter. Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!
”
”
David Gilmour (Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here : Guitar Tab Edition [Songbook])
“
My attitude has always been if you get better and you see success, that should motivate you to even work harder, so that's kinda how I approach everything.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
And weren't, when you got right down to it, particularly evil. Human beings mostly aren't. They just get carried away by new ideas, like dressing up in jackboots and shooting people, or dressing up in white sheets and lynching people, or dressing up in tie-dye jeans and and playing guitar at people. Offer people a new creed with a costume and their hearts and minds will follow
”
”
Neil Gaiman (Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch)
“
Joan of Arc came back as a little girl in Japan, and her father told her to stop listening to her imaginary friends.
Elvis was born again in a small village in Sudan, he died hungry, age 9, never knowing what a guitar was.
Michelangelo was drafted into the military at age 18 in Korea, he painted his face black with shoe polish and learned to kill.
Jackson Pollock got told to stop making a mess, somewhere in Russia.
Hemingway, to this day, writes DVD instruction manuals somewhere in China. He’s an old man on a factory line. You wouldn’t recognise him.
Gandhi was born to a wealthy stockbroker in New York. He never forgave the world after his father threw himself from his office window, on the 21st floor.
And everyone, somewhere, is someone, if we only give them a chance.
”
”
Iain S. Thomas
“
That's the beautiful thing about innocence; even monsters have a pocketful of childhood memories with which to seek comfort with.
”
”
Dave Matthes (Sleepeth Not, the Bastard)
“
These days, I've been trying to classify my thoughts into two categories: "Things I can change," and "Things I can't." It seems to help me sort through what to really stress about. But there I go again, over-planning and over-organizing my over-thinking! I write songs about my adventures and misadventures, most of which concern love. Love is a tricky business. But if it wasn't, I wouldn't be so enthralled with it. Lately I've come to a wonderful realization that makes me even more fascinated by it: I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to love. No one does! There's no pattern to it, except that it happens to all of us, of course. I can't plan for it. I can't predict how it'll end up. Because love is unpredictable and it's frustrating and it's tragic and it's beautiful. And even though there's no way to feel like I'm an expert at it, it's worth writing songs about -- more than anything else I've ever experienced in my life.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
Voicemail #1: “Hi, Isabel Culpeper. I am lying in my bed, looking at the ceiling. I am mostly naked. I am thinking of … your mother. Call me.”
Voicemail #2: The first minute and thirty seconds of “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You” by the Bee Gees.
Voicemail #3: “I’m bored. I need to be entertained. Sam is moping. I may kill him with his own guitar. It would give me something to do and also make him say something. Two birds with one stone! I find all these old expressions unnecessarily violent. Like, ring around the rosy. That’s about the plague, did you know? Of course you did. The plague is, like, your older cousin. Hey, does Sam talk to you? He says jack shit to me. God, I’m bored. Call me.”
Voicemail #4: “Hotel California” by the Eagles, in its entirety, with every instance of the word California replaced with Minnesota.
Voicemail #5: “Hi, this is Cole St. Clair. Want to know two true things? One, you’re never picking up this phone. Two, I’m never going to stop leaving long messages. It’s like therapy. Gotta talk to someone. Hey, you know what I figured out today? Victor’s dead. I figured it out yesterday, too. Every day I figure it out again. I don’t know what I’m doing here. I feel like there’s no one I can —”
Voicemail #6: “So, yeah, I’m sorry. That last message went a little pear-shaped. You like that expression? Sam said it the other day. Hey, try this theory on for size: I think he’s a dead British housewife reincarnated into a Beatle’s body. You know, I used to know this band that put on fake British accents for their shows. Boy, did they suck, aside from being assholes. I can’t remember their name now. I’m either getting senile or I’ve done enough to my brain that stuff’s falling out. Not so fair of me to make this one-sided, is it? I’m always talking about myself in these things. So, how are you, Isabel Rosemary Culpeper? Smile lately? Hot Toddies. That was the name of the band. The Hot Toddies.”
Voicemail #20: “I wish you’d answer.
”
”
Maggie Stiefvater (Forever (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #3))
“
I finally found him sitting on his balcony. He was leaning back against the wall with his eyes closed. Soft music played, and a cool ocean breeze blew back my hair as I stepped on to the balcony and inhaled the scent of the sea.
"May I join you?" I asked softly.
He didn’t bother opening his eyes. "If you like."
The moon in the dark sky looked like a giant white plate dipping its edge into the ocean. We sat quietly for a while. I closed my eyes too and listened to him hum along in harmony with the music.
"You haven’t played your guitar in a long time. I miss it," I said when the song was finished.
Ren turned away. "I fear there is no music left in me.
”
”
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Destiny (The Tiger Saga, #4))
“
It sounded old. Deserve. Old and tired and beaten to death. Deserve. Now it seemed to him that he was always saying or thinking that he didn't deserve some bad luck, or some bad treatment from others. He'd told Guitar that he didn't "deserve" his family's dependence, hatred, or whatever. That he didn't even "deserve" to hear all the misery and mutual accusations his parents unloaded on him. Nor did he "deserve" Hagar's vengeance. But why shouldn't his parents tell him their personal problems? If not him, then who? And if a stranger could try to kill him, surely Hagar, who knew him and whom he'd thrown away like a wad of chewing gum after the flavor was gone––she had a right to try to kill him too.
Apparently he though he deserved only to be loved--from a distance, though--and given what he wanted. And in return he would be...what? Pleasant? Generous? Maybe all he was really saying was: I am not responsible for your pain; share your happiness with me but not your unhappiness.
”
”
Toni Morrison (Song of Solomon)
“
When violet eyes get brighter
And heavy wings grow lighter
I'll taste the sky and feel alive again
And I'll forget the world that I knew
But I swear I won't forget you
Oh if my voice could reach back through the past
I'd whisper in your ear:
"Oh darling I wish you were here.
”
”
Owl City (Owl City - Ocean Eyes Piano, Vocal and Guitar Chords)
“
I'd always thought that my awkwardness was a thin veil disguising the real me. The me that was funny and could write songs that touched people. The me that would one day find some beautiful, intelligent boy who'd recognize me as his soul mate. The me who was secretly pretty and stylish if only someone would lift the veil and see. But I was beginning to suspect that underneath the awkwardness there was just more awkwardness and not much else. And that would explain why I stood in a room full of people and felt like the loneliest girl in the world.
”
”
Sarra Manning (Guitar Girl)
“
So . . . middle school? Awkward. Having a hobby that's different from everyone else's? Awkward. Singing the national anthem on weekends instead of going to sleepovers? More awkward. Braces? Awkward. Gain a lot of weight before you hit the growth spurt? Awkward. Frizzy hair, don't embrace the curls yet? Awkward. Try to straighten it? Awkward!So many phases!
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
“
Well, I’ve been a musician my whole life. When I was two, I would sing the theme from Star Wars in my crib; my mom taped it for proof. Then, when I was five, I asked for a violin. No one knew why I would want one, but my wish was granted and I ended up a classically trained fiddler by age 12. The only problem with that was, when you’re a classical violinist, everybody expects you to be satisfied with playing Tchaikovsky for the rest of your life, and saying you want to play jazz, rock, write songs, sing your songs, hook up your fiddle to a guitar amp, sleep with your 4-track recorder, mess around with synths, dress like Tinkerbell in combat boots, AND play Tchaikovsky is equivalent to spitting on the Pope.
”
”
Emilie Autumn
“
Boast of Quietness
Writings of light assault the darkness, more prodigious than meteors.
The tall unknowable city takes over the countryside.
Sure of my life and death, I observe the ambitious and would like to
understand them.
Their day is greedy as a lariat in the air.
Their night is a rest from the rage within steel, quick to attack.
They speak of humanity.
My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of that same poverty.
They speak of homeland.
My homeland is the rhythm of a guitar, a few portraits, an old sword,
the willow grove's visible prayer as evening falls.
Time is living me.
More silent than my shadow, I pass through the loftily covetous multitude.
They are indispensable, singular, worthy of tomorrow.
My name is someone and anyone.
I walk slowly, like one who comes from so far away he doesn't expect to arrive.
”
”
Jorge Luis Borges
“
Back To December is a song that addresses a first for me. In that I've never apologized in a song before. Whether it be good or bad or an apology. The person I wrote this song about deserves this. This is about a person who was incredible to me- just perfect in a relationship- and I was very careless with him. So, this is a song full of words that I would say to him that he deserves to hear.
I’ve never felt the need to apologize in a song before, but in the last two years I’ve experienced a lot, a lot of different kinds of learning lessons And sometimes you learn a lesson too late and at that point you need to apologize because you were careless. ['Back To December'] is about a person who was incredible to me, just perfect to me in a relationship, and I was really careless with him
I’ve written songs about things like burning my ex boyfriends pictures… I’ve written songs about the times that I’ve been hurt by love. But then one day I woke up and realized that I had hurt somebody… And so I wrote this song to tell him I’m sorry
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift - Speak Now Songbook: Piano/Vocal/Guitar)
“
Jay took out his guitar. He was decent at it, but the piano was his best talent. He couldn’t get a certain riff right, so he handed the instrument to Kaidan, and my heart flipped.
I recalled him saying he played guitar, but I’d never actually seen or heard him play. Kaidan began to pick at each string, testing and tuning with his full attention. I watched the way his hands moved across the wood and strings, gently, reverently, his body seeming to curl around it as if it were a part of him. . . . I felt my hands getting sweaty, because watching Kaidan get lost in music did crazy things to me. My breathing became ragged and I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
He looked up at that moment and caught me staring hard. He knew. He knew what it did to me! I could tell because his badge expanded.
He angled himself away from the others and signed to me, I want to be alone with you tonight.
Patti did have a lot of guests staying in the house. I signed back, I’ll work on it.
“Excellent,” he whispered, a hot grin sliding onto his face.
”
”
Wendy Higgins (Sweet Reckoning (Sweet, #3))
“
SONIA: What can we do? We must live our lives. [A pause] Yes, we shall live, Uncle Vanya. We shall live through the long procession of days before us, and through the long evenings; we shall patiently bear the trials that fate imposes on us; we shall work for others without rest, both now and when we are old; and when our last hour comes we shall meet it humbly, and there, beyond the grave, we shall say that we have suffered and wept, that our life was bitter, and God will have pity on us. Ah, then dear, dear Uncle, we shall see that bright and beautiful life; we shall rejoice and look back upon our sorrow here; a tender smile—and—we shall rest. I have faith, Uncle, fervent, passionate faith. [SONIA kneels down before her uncle and lays her head on his hands. She speaks in a weary voice] We shall rest. [TELEGIN plays softly on the guitar] We shall rest. We shall hear the angels. We shall see heaven shining like a jewel. We shall see all evil and all our pain sink away in the great compassion that shall enfold the world. Our life will be as peaceful and tender and sweet as a caress. I have faith; I have faith. [She wipes away her tears] My poor, poor Uncle Vanya, you are crying! [Weeping] You have never known what happiness was, but wait, Uncle Vanya, wait! We shall rest. [She embraces him] We shall rest. [The WATCHMAN’S rattle is heard in the garden; TELEGIN plays softly; MME. VOITSKAYA writes something on the margin of her pamphlet; MARINA knits her stocking] We shall rest.
”
”
Anton Chekhov (Uncle Vanya)
“
An incomplete list:
No more diving into pools of chlorinated water lit green from below. No more ball games played out under floodlights. No more porch lights with moths fluttering on summer nights. No more trains running under the surface of cities on the dazzling power of the electric third rail. No more cities. No more films, except rarely, except with a generator drowning out half the dialogue, and only then for the first little while until the fuel for the generators ran out, because automobile gas goes stale after two or three years. Aviation gas lasts longer, but it was difficult to come by.
No more screens shining in the half-light as people raise their phones above the crowd to take pictures of concert states. No more concert stages lit by candy-colored halogens, no more electronica, punk, electric guitars.
No more pharmaceuticals. No more certainty of surviving a scratch on one's hand, a cut on a finger while chopping vegetables for dinner, a dog bite.
No more flight. No more towns glimpsed from the sky through airplane windows, points of glimmering light; no more looking down from thirty thousand feet and imagining the lives lit up by those lights at that moment. No more airplanes, no more requests to put your tray table in its upright and locked position – but no, this wasn't true, there were still airplanes here and there. They stood dormant on runways and in hangars. They collected snow on their wings. In the cold months, they were ideal for food storage. In summer the ones near orchards were filled with trays of fruit that dehydrated in the heat. Teenagers snuck into them to have sex. Rust blossomed and streaked.
No more countries, all borders unmanned.
No more fire departments, no more police. No more road maintenance or garbage pickup. No more spacecraft rising up from Cape Canaveral, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, from Vandenburg, Plesetsk, Tanegashima, burning paths through the atmosphere into space.
No more Internet. No more social media, no more scrolling through litanies of dreams and nervous hopes and photographs of lunches, cries for help and expressions of contentment and relationship-status updates with heart icons whole or broken, plans to meet up later, pleas, complaints, desires, pictures of babies dressed as bears or peppers for Halloween. No more reading and commenting on the lives of others, and in so doing, feeling slightly less alone in the room. No more avatars.
”
”
Emily St. John Mandel (Station Eleven)
“
I wanted you, nameless Woman of the South,
No wraith, but utterly—as still more alone
The Southern Cross takes night
And lifts her girdles from her, one by one—
High, cool,
wide from the slowly smoldering fire
Of lower heavens,—
vaporous scars!
Eve! Magdalene!
or Mary, you?
Whatever call—falls vainly on the wave.
O simian Venus, homeless Eve,
Unwedded, stumbling gardenless to grieve
Windswept guitars on lonely decks forever;
Finally to answer all within one grave!
And this long wake of phosphor,
iridescent
Furrow of all our travel—trailed derision!
Eyes crumble at its kiss. Its long-drawn spell
Incites a yell. Slid on that backward vision
The mind is churned to spittle, whispering hell.
I wanted you . . . The embers of the Cross
Climbed by aslant and huddling aromatically.
It is blood to remember; it is fire
To stammer back . . . It is
God—your namelessness. And the wash—
All night the water combed you with black
Insolence. You crept out simmering, accomplished.
Water rattled that stinging coil, your
Rehearsed hair—docile, alas, from many arms.
Yes, Eve—wraith of my unloved seed!
The Cross, a phantom, buckled—dropped below the dawn.
Light drowned the lithic trillions of your spawn.
”
”
Hart Crane (The Bridge)
“
See, the thing is I didn't think that that song would get much attention because it's such a personal song to me. I just wrote it about my childhood, and I didn't know how that would read on an album. But it's been everybody's favorite song. I didn't tell my mom. It was a total secret. So I wrote it in secret and then decided to record it secretly, so she had no idea that the song was recorded. My producers sent me the track and I synched it up to all my baby videos and I played it for her one Christmas Eve, and she bawled her eyes out. She didn't even think that it was my song. She didn't think there was any way for me to record a song without her knowing.
”
”
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)