Amy Grant Quotations

Get outside. Watch the sunrise. Watch the sunset. How does that make you feel? Does it make you feel big or tiny? Because there's something good about feeling both.

Thanksgiving Day is a good day to recommit our energies to giving thanks and just giving.

I think our culture encourages all of us to always put our best foot forward. I think it's a good thing. I think it's nice to rise to the occasion, to be kind and considerate, and have self control.

But my experience is that people who have been through painful, difficult times are filled with compassion.

I think for a woman, the hardest thing about growing old is becoming invisible. There's something very front and center about being young.

Faith is salted and peppered through everything at Christmas. And I love at least one night by the Christmas tree to sing and feel the quiet holiness of that time that's set apart to celebrate love, friendship, and God's gift of the Christ child.

I can look at the future with anticipation. And it's comforting to know that someday, as Christians, we'll be able to look back and have a little more clarity on why certain things in life happened.

Without black, no color has any depth. But if you mix black with everything, suddenly there's shadow - no, not just shadow, but fullness. You've got to be willing to mix black into your palette if you want to create something that's real.

Life goes by really fast, and it seems that there are times when you're burying a lot of friends and family. And then there are times that feel really precious and everybody is doing okay. This is one of those times.

Every good relationship, especially marriage, is based on respect. If it's not based on respect, nothing that appears to be good will last very long.

There's a beauty to wisdom and experience that cannot be faked. It's impossible to be mature without having lived.

People are going to come into your life that need you, and being there for them makes the day worth living. People are going to come into your life that you need, and that's the really crazy thing.

I did the best I could, and in some arenas, my best was not good enough. I've made some bad choices.

The people I've been exposed to have been people of amazing integrity.

Rich Mullins was the uneasy conscience of Christian music. He didn't live like a star. He'd taken a vow of poverty so that what he earned could be used to help others.

There is not a formula for the way that God heals. There's not a timetable.

The more time you invest in a marriage, the more valuable it becomes.

Anybody who's ever gone through a hard time - any outsider's perception, no matter how much information they're given, they have no idea what the person's life is like.

You have to treat people gently because we're all in a process. What might seem like a good idea to somebody at 21 is probably not going to seem like a good idea at 50, but you don't know that until you get there.

When I was younger, I just thought that my plans were probably going to be more exciting than my parents' plans or the establishment. I sort of got by on being a little bit of a rebel.

How we absorb music is unique. I know what I do. When I'm listening to music, I tend to find myself in a song. That's what really makes you connect is if you feel what that song is saying.

Since I travel so much, it's always great to be home. There's nothing like getting to raid my own refrigerator at two in the morning.

Real relationship is gritty and earthy, the stuff that life is made of.

It's human nature to be curious about people, and to be more curious about young people than old people. We want to cheer something on at the same time we want to tear it down. That's just so normal.

I just think music is such a beautiful thing. It lifts the heart and buoys up your spirits - all kinds of music.

Come Christmas Eve, we usually go to my mom and dad's. Everybody brings one gift and then we play that game when we all steal it from each other. Some are really cool, others are useful and some are a bit out there.

I'm frustrated by something, it's my fault for exposing myself to it in the first place. The rumor mill always seemed like a grass fire to me. Why walk out in the middle of the field, it's just going to flame out and go away just like everything else does?

I never thought getting older would be so great. But when it comes to depression, I have experienced less the older I've gotten.

I've found that music allows years to fold like an accordion over each other, so I guess you don't feel the passage of time as much.

I don't write songs that don't affect me on some level, because I figure if I am not moved by it, if its not something that I have a longing to celebrate or to be reminded of, if it doesn't affect me, then how can I possibly think it is going to affect somebody else. My touchstone is write something that matters.

I feel a part of the congregation. I've never had to do special music. The kids sing in the choir. It's just normal. We're treated like everybody else.

I can look back at different times in my life when I felt I could not find my way out of whatever it was. I'm not necessarily talking about marriage, but I wanted to pack it in. I wanted to disappear. A lot of that has to do with being in the public eye.

The great thing about a song is that no one has to know your story. But if you tell it in a way that has clarity and means something to somebody else, then it can apply to their story.

Life is a process, and you just take it a day at a time, and you can't live in tomorrow, and you can't reach back and be in yesterday. No matter how much you want to, you just have what's right there in front of you.

I love being with my children. They're fascinating people.

What might seem like a good idea to somebody at 21 is probably not going to seem like a good idea at 50, but you don't know that until you get there.

Do I think all contemporary Christian music is good? No.

I think what I mostly realize is just that life is unpredictable. So don't be afraid, but just enjoy the day you're in. Really make the most of it.

I was taught a lot of Bible at home and had a voracious appetite for reading the Bible.

I'm not anxious to be anywhere other than where I am right now.

The song 'Baby Baby,' I so love that song because I wrote it about my first daughter.

I think a woman can have all of the ideas and mental pictures. She can be a real planner and a motivator. But in the end, I think a woman does best when she responds to a man.

I think that if my kids are completely convinced of God's unfailing love for them, whether they fail or not, they'll have confidence to persevere in life

Somebody who has been in a very bad wreck is going to be very conscientious about not speeding through a yellow light... You just learn so many good lessons when you go through a failed marriage.

But to make a holiday record that involves favorite American songs and then also get to sing about Jesus birth, it just seemed like a real easy, subtle way to combine a couple of things that I love.

But now it's kind of a given that a 15-year-old would have a record deal and sell a quarter of a million records. No one's expecting her to answer any deep theological questions. And I'll tell you, I was asked some deep theological questions from the git-go.

To me, the real thrill is in making the music, and then I just trust it to find its own audience, and at times it's big and at times it's small, but that's beyond my control.

If you went to your closet today, would you pull out the same outfit you wore 10 or 15 years ago? You wear feelings and faith differently as well.

For me, the backdrop of half the experiences of life includes music.

When I look back at the pictures of our blended family the day Vince and I married, he and I are smiling, and all the children are frowning.

Everybody's entitled to think whatever they want and to express that, but my personal day-to-day experience does not come into contact with any of those people.

I think the first time you try anything in a public way, you feel really exposed.

The most consistent musical experience I had growing up was church music.

I know my own weaknesses as a human being, and as a musician, as a singer and as a woman.

I started my teenage years singing in churches across America, and finally wound up on a big stage.

I write about everything, but I just - how faith filters through all that and colors your opinion of other people and life and all that.

Depending on what day of the week it is and what time of the month it is, I'm a good friend or not a good friend. I'm more or less a good mom or not a good mom, more or less a good mate or not a good mate. That's just life, whether or not you're public.

I have spent probably years of time waiting in studio lounges - waiting on a mix, waiting on my time to sing, waiting on, waiting on, waiting on. That's just the nature of life.

In the past, when I'd recorded during a break in a tour, it was so easy to sing, because I felt strong. Also, like so many new mothers, I wasn't getting a lot of sleep, and sleeping is such a huge part of being able to sing.

The fact of the matter is, when I'm on tour, I'm juggling so hard to keep all the balls in the air that I don't often get to really enjoy what I'm out there doing.

To me, it's all about the song. Songs are what make me excited. You hear a great song and you want to record it or get a great idea and you want to write it.

I just think people should find the music that helps them through the day and enjoy that. I've never felt like, if somebody does or doesn't like what I'm doing, it's a morality issue

What a great thing to wish for, your life plays out in a way, that you miss something that's so important to you, and somebody says what would you like, or if I could wish I would turn back the hands of time and go back and enjoy this experience that I missed.

My energy was focused on trying to find my way out of a deep, dark wood, and getting good help that I trusted, and being involved with the people I was responsible for and responsible to. Beyond that extended family/friends/church base, there was no energy to consider who was putting the ban on me. If somebody made that choice, I totally respect that. But I had no interest in trying to justify anything to anybody.

Music took a bunch of average-Joe Christians who could play electric guitar and sing and threw them into the limelight. But we were not a bunch of Billy Grahams.

One of the great things about being older is you can be a sounding board, a good listener. But to be honest, I'd just as soon look down a loaded shotgun barrel than snap my fingers and suddenly be 94 today! Growing old isn't for the the weak at heart. The hardest thing would be to see your body backfire. And the whole wrinkle thing is really odd.

I don't think it's about the hype, I think it's about the possibility of people saying, 'You mean there is really a possibility that my wish could be chosen?'

Just didn't know what was gonna happen to us, just didn't know where we were gonna go. Didn't have a clue as to what we were gonna do next,

Looking at little Conner take those steps across the stage, and I thought everyone of us knows the feeling of facing something that just seems insurmountable. Sometimes it just takes a little time.

The secret to overcoming a feeling of loneliness is not going outside to meet people. That will only keep you from being alone. The secret is going inside yourself, to realize your true kinship with God and with all the human beings that he created.

It takes a little time sometimes To get your feet back on the ground...

The same rain that drowns the rat will grow the hay.

All I ever have to be is what you made me.

Heaven plants a special seed, and we must have faith.

That happened when I was a freshman in high school. The guy reading it [the Bible] was dating my older sister. I thought he was the cutest thing that had ever happened in Nashville. He was nine years older than me and I thought, 'Mimi, I hate to do this to you, but I'm going to steal this guy away.' So I went to this Bible study thinking I was going to make this guy fall in love with me. I was fourteen. Hey, you know. But I was so overwhelmed by what they were talking about at this Bible study. I became a very serious, committed Christian.

I refuse to believe that we're only here to live and die.

If I had my life to live over again, I'd run barefoot, relax a bit more, I'd talk more to children, and I'd learn how they laugh.

Man hurts man, time and time again. As we drown in the wake of our power, somebody tell me why?

I need music like I need water.

You do your best, you do all this stuff, but the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

I'm going to live what I believe

I had the great advantage of a mother who used to tell me the most beautiful years of a woman's life are ages 35 to 45.

I know how it feels to go into a studio to start a record, and eight weeks later it's finished. I know how an intense schedule feels.

If it all just happened overnight, you would never learn to believe in what you cannot see...

The world my children are growing up in is so much more sophisticated and exposed - emotionally, intellectually, sexually.

Giving never happens by accident. It's always intentional.

To me, the human experience does involve a great deal of anguish. It's joyful, but it's bittersweet. I just think that's life.

Love's for fools wise enough to take a chance.

You live in a dangerous place when you sacrifice integrity for security.

If a politician isn't doing it to his wife , then he's doing it to his country.

[Sunbathing nude] was a liberating experience. It felt unbelievably crazy to take off all my clothes and play in the sun. I've not had that much fun in so long.

I count myself really fortunate that I have some lifelong friends. The best thing about a friend is when you are being your own worst enemy a friend can help snap you out of it.

Everybody needs a helping hand, take a look at your fellow man.

Its true. Im a simple person. Some people tend to live from trauma to trauma, and that energizes them. I have a hectic schedule, but my mind seeks simplicity - like being in nature, a long bike ride, or sitting on the back porch.

More important than talent, strength, or knowledge is the ability to laugh at yourself and enjoy the pursuit of your dreams.

We did a show in San Antonio that was really amazing. The military helped us do a satellite to Baghdad where during intermission we had eight families seated in the front row and one by one they were able to communicate with their loved ones using the cameras to see each other. It was so emotional and nobody moved even though it was the intermission.

To be invited into these powerful situations is life-changing. I don't know what I expected to happen on this show, but the lessons we are learning as we help these people have just surpassed anything I could have imagined.

You cannot believe the ripple effect, ... For every person whose wish is chosen, they're meeting a need. And when needs are met, the walls come down between people. When needs are met, people allow themselves to be vulnerable, because things are happening that are important and necessary.

to never underestimate the impact one life can have on another.

was going to have a front-row seat to some pretty amazing interaction with some very deserving people. I'm so glad my name was thrown into the pot, and I look forward to working with NBC ... and executive producer Andrew Glassman -- and I hope that together we are able to make a lot of dreams come true.