Quote

I found myself in the middle of a race riot when I was about 14 years old, and I found someone pointing a gun at me and telling me to run or they'd shoot me.

Tracy Chapman

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Tracy Chapman
Age: 60
Born: 1964
Born: March 30
Composer
Guitarist
Musician
Recording Artist
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Street Artist
Cleveland
Ohio
Gun
Telling
Middle
Race
Running
Found
Riot
Someone
Pointing
Years
Shoot

More quotes by Tracy Chapman

Image
There's a power in words. There's a power in being able to explain and describe and articulate what you know and feel and believe about the world, and about yourself.
Tracy Chapman
Image
Growing up in Cleveland, I learned about singing from my mother, who had once sung professionally and who admired Mahalia Jackson and Aretha Franklin.
Tracy Chapman
Image
I meet people in my daily life, people who seem to experience some change and some growth on a personal level, and that gives me hope.
Tracy Chapman
Image
Love's a recurring theme through my work.
Tracy Chapman
Image
Men are able to sustain a career into their 50s and 60s and still present themselves as sex symbols. With women, on the other hand, people say, 'Why doesn't she retire?'
Tracy Chapman
Image
Have faith in humankind a respect for what is earthly and an unfaltering belief in peace and understanding
Tracy Chapman
Image
Words don't come easily, like forgive me.
Tracy Chapman
Image
I picked up the guitar at 11, but even before then, I was writing songs on the organ.
Tracy Chapman
Image
With other people, you're always swapping music. Somebody is always listening to something you've never heard. It's a great way to hear all sorts of new things.
Tracy Chapman
Image
As a child I spent a lot of time at the library.
Tracy Chapman
Image
People's real hopes and dreams can be distorted and misdirected and packaged until you're not sure what you really want or what you even really need.
Tracy Chapman
Image
My old man's got a problem, he lives with the bottle.
Tracy Chapman
Image
You got a fast car But is it fast enough so we can fly away We gotta make a decision We leave tonight or live and die this way.
Tracy Chapman
Image
I learn all these things about the record talking about it after it's finished.
Tracy Chapman
Image
I may be revered or defamed and decried But I tried to live my life right.
Tracy Chapman
Image
I dressed up as a veterinarian for a Halloween costume party. I had the lab coat. I got a couple of stuffed animals for patients and put bandages on them.
Tracy Chapman
Image
The songs are not necessarily autobiographical. A lot of songs are a combination of influences. It might be some part of my life, or something I've felt, or something somebody's told me. It all comes together.
Tracy Chapman
Image
I got a plan to get out of here, I've been working at a convenient store.
Tracy Chapman
Image
My older sister encouraged me from early on and bought me one of the first guitars I had. She listened to all of the crappy songs that I wrote when I was 8 years old and encouraged me to keep doing it.
Tracy Chapman
Image
Renounce all those material things that you gained by exploiting other human beings.
Tracy Chapman