I see your face in my mind as I drive away,
'Cause none of us thought it was gonna end that way
People are people,
And sometimes we change our minds
But it's killing me to see you go after all this time

Music starts playin' like the end of a sad movie,
It's the kinda ending you don't really wanna see
'Cause it's tragedy and it'll only bring you down,
Now I don't know what to be without you around

And we know it's never simple,
Never easy
Never a clean break, no one here to save me
You're the only thing I know like the back of my hand,

[Chorus]
And I can't,
Breathe,
Without you,
But I have to,
Breathe,
Without you,
But I have to

Never wanted this, never wanna see you hurt
Every little bump in the road I tried to swerve
People are people,
And sometimes it doesn't work out,
Nothing we say is gonna save us from the fall out

And we know it's never simple,
Never easy
Never a clean break, no one here to save me
You're the only thing I know like the back of my hand,

[Chorus]

It's two am
Feelin' like I just lost a friend
Hope you know it's not easy,
Easy for me

It's two am
Feelin' like I just lost a friend
Hope you know this ain't easy,
Easy for me

And we know it's never simple,
Never easy
Never a clean break, no one here to save me

I can't,
Breathe,
Without you,
But I have to,
Breathe,
Without you,
But I have to

Breathe,
Without you,
But I have to

Sorry (oh) sorry
Sorry sorry
Sorry sorry



Lyrics submitted by ReeSeS

Track duration: 04:24

"Breathe" as written by Harold Arlen, Ted Koehler

Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


Breathe song meanings
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87 Comments

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  • +2
    My Opinion:This song can be about either losing a friend or a partner; its about losing someone who you loved and meant a lot to you. Feeling like it's hard to live without that person, but you know you have to learn how to do so. You didn't think this was going to happen, not like this, not now. But people can change their minds, and feelings change or fade. It's a really sad song. You really loved someone... but it's all over now. It IS the "kinda ending you don't really wanna see". You really don't know what to do without them... other than just breathe. And you don't know how to live without this person, but you know you have to.
    Flagged runfromyourmumon February 14, 2013   Link
  • 0
    My Opinion:This song can be about either losing a friend or a partner; its about losing someone who you loved and meant a lot to you. Feeling like it's hard to live without that person, but you know you have to learn how to do so. You didn't think this was going to happen, not like this, not now. But people can change their minds, and feelings change or fade. It's a really sad song. You really loved someone... but it's all over now. It IS the "kinda ending you don't really wanna see". You really don't know what to do without them... other than just breathe. And you don't know how to live without this person, but you know you have to.
    Flag runfromyourmumon February 14, 2013   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:When I first heard this song I was dating a boy that I really enjoyed being with but I couldn't date him anymore. I had dated him for two years and had just fallen out of love. I was in the car with him when it came on and started crying. We really did have a "movie" relationship. He was the captain of the football team, and handsome. I was the new girl in town when we met my dad was in Afghanistan. I was immediately attracted to him and we were great for a long time. I got used to being with him and felt safe but I just changed my mind. Everyone in high school was shocked when we broke up they made it so much more difficult than it had to be. It was hard enough getting over it as it was. I hated hurting him but I wasn't happy. He wouldn't talk to me for a long time after that but he did eventually forgive me. It wasn't simple, or easy.
    Flagged caa2320on January 01, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Swift wrote this love-gone-wrong song with singer-songwriter Colbie Caillat, who also sings on the track. Swift told That's Country how she hooked up with the Californian: "I was a huge fan of Colbie's record. When it came out, I fell in love with the way that she makes music. I contacted her management right away and I asked if I could write with her and, sure enough, Colbie had a date coming up in Nashville where she was going to be playing a show and she had the day off. I think she sounds beautiful on it. I'm so excited to have her voice on my album."


    Swift explained to That's Country that this tune is, "a song about having to say goodbye to somebody, but it never blames anybody. Sometimes that's the most difficult part. When it's nobody's fault."


    Colbie Caillat told The Associated Press about their collaboration: "I went to Nashville about a year and a half ago, and she wanted to write with me, and I flew there and we worked on the songs on morning and she had this beautiful song started and it's about having to let someone go and say goodbye to a really good friend. And we became friends after that. She is so sweet, so beautiful, so talented and honestly just a really intelligent young women. She knows what she is doing and she knows how to handle her career and take charge. I love her."
    Flag musicrocks13on November 11, 2012   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:This song is absolutely perfect in every way possible. Let me just start off by saying that. Last year, there was the guy that I liked a LOT and he seemed interested. We never officially dated, but we were almost there. Then he started to date another girl who was one of my somewhat distant friends. I was so hurt it was crazy.

    "people are people and sometimes we change our minds"

    A few weeks later, I asked him if he had ever liked me. I wanted to know if he had just led me on or if he was a genuine person. He told me that he did like me, but he didn't know if I liked him back. I told him thanks but ended the conversation there. It hurt too much for me to handle.

    Now for a new part of the story. This boy had been dating my friend for about a month when he announced that he would be moving. Not out of town, not out of state, but out of country. He moved to Brazil. He told us (our orchestra class) that he'd be back by the beginning of next year. He hasn't been back.

    "none of us thought it was gonna end that way"

    I miss him so much and after he left, I was a wreck. I cried, I didn't know what to do or who to talk to. Then one day I stumbled across this song. I had always like it, but now that I had reasons to fit in (fully or somewhat) the lyrics, it was so much more meaningful. When he left, I couldn't do anything I wanted. I couldn't have fun, I couldn't sing, I couldn't write. I could barely even breathe without him there.

    "I can't breathe without you but I have to"

    I miss him so much. I have no idea when he'll be back.
    Flag itsjustme3on October 11, 2012   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:When I first heard this song, I thought it was about a break-up that you never wanted to happen, but I realized it's about a friendship that just ended. And I can totally relate. I've had lots of friendships that I can't ever retrieve. I never wanted any endings to those friendships, no matter how frustrating those people were. I thought I couldn't live without those now-strangers who used to be encouraging friends, and sometimes I felt ike I wanted to be with my former friends again. Like I regretted everything I did to upset them. But then I just, you know, moved on and met other people I became friends with. And even though the same thing happened again (and again), I'm still trying to find true friends. And I feel better right away through this song. Thanks Taylor (and Colbie).
    Flag OhReallyOKon August 31, 2012   Link
  • +2
    Song Meaning:This song has a lot of meaning for me. It reminds me of my first real relationship that ended in the worst way and resulted in the worst heartbreak of my life. I feel like every single lyric in this song describes my relationship perfectly.

    To me, this is what I think the song is about:

    “I see your face in my mind as I drive away; 'Cause none of us thought it was gonna end that way. People are people, and sometimes we change our minds. But it's killing me to see you go after all this time”

    It’s about breaking up with someone you love on bad terms when you weren’t ready and didn’t want for it to end, at least not the way that it did. So you go for a drive to clear your head and to think about everything that went wrong. You think to yourself and realize that you really didn’t think you would actually ever break up and neither did anyone else around you. You had a lot of ups and downs, but you still always managed to get back together. Also, you were in a relationship with this person for a very long time so you honestly thought you would always be with that person, forever. But you realize that as time changes, so do people and their feelings. Sometimes it’s possible to fall out of love with someone, especially if that person has done a lot of things throughout the course of your relationship to hurt you or to make you not trust them. So you decide that maybe it’s best to leave that person, no matter how much it kills you to see them go.

    “Music starts playin' like the end of a sad movie, it’s the kinda ending you don't really wanna see. ‘Cause its tragedy and it'll only bring you down, now I don't know what to be without you around.”

    As you continue to drive, a sad song comes on the radio that relates a lot to your situation and makes you feel like you’re watching a sad movie that end tragically. So you turn off the music and continue thinking about everything. That’s when you realize that you have no idea what to do with yourself because the person you love isn’t there anymore and you feel like a part of you is missing. You feel like you don’t even know who you are anymore without them. That’s when you start to think about how different your life is going to be because someone who was such an important part of your life is gone now and you’re not sure how to handle it.

    “And we know it's never simple, never easy. Never a clean break, no one here to save me. You're the only thing I know like the back of my hand.”

    You come to the realization that no matter how things ended between the two of you, things weren’t going to be simple or easy. Heartbreaks are never simple or easy for anyone to go through. When your heart breaks, it shatters into a million little pieces. You feel so lost and confused about everything in your life. You feel so helpless and the only person who can make you feel better is the one who hurt you. You feel like when they walked away, they took a part of you with them. You’re not a whole person without them. You feel so betrayed because you thought you knew this person better than anyone or anything in the whole world. You start to feel like maybe you didn’t know this person at all and maybe everything you had with them was a lie.

    “And I can't, breathe, without you, but I have to, breathe, without you, but I have to.”

    You honestly feel like you’re physically dying without this person. It literally makes you lose your breath and you have to force yourself to calm down and just breathe. You feel like loving this person is like breathing air, you can’t live without it. You start breaking down and feel like your literally going to die without this person.

    “Never wanted this, never wanna see you hurt. Every little bump in the road I tried to swerve. People are people, and sometimes it doesn't work out. Nothing we say is gonna save us from the fallout”

    You think about all the things that you wish you could say or would have said to the person about everything that led up to this break up. You think about how much this break up might be hurting them and that makes you hurt for them because even though you’re broken up, you still don’t want to see them hurting. You think about how hard you tried to fix things and make things work out between you two, but it takes two people to make a relationship work. You think about what you might say to each other if you were talking to them right now. You think that you would both come to the conclusion that not every relationship works out or is meant last forever. But then you think that no matter what either of you would say, it would still hurt just as bad as it does now if not worse.

    “It's two am, feelin' like I just lost a friend. Hope you know it's not easy, easy for me.”

    You realize that it’s 2AM and that you’ve been alone for hours thinking about everything that’s happened. You feel so lost and alone, like you just lost your best friend. You wonder if they even care that it’s over between you two because you haven’t talked to them since the breakup. You start to think that maybe this isn’t as hard on them as it is on you. You want them to know that this isn’t easy for you at all and that it’s killing you. But you don’t try to talk to them either because you feel pathetic for being so hurt over it and they seem to be doing just fine without you.

    “I can't, breathe, without you, but I have to, breathe, without you, but I have to. Sorry (oh) sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.”

    You finally realize that things really are over between the two of you. Even though your heart is still broken and it still hard for you to even breathe, you realize you have to accept it and start moving on. You want them to know that this isn’t going to be easy for you at all but it’s something you have to do for yourself. You look back at everything that’s happened and feel very remorseful. You take the blame for a lot of things, even if you shouldn’t. You are sorry for the things you did wrong and that he couldn’t forgive you for them. You also are sorry that you have to let go and walk away. You wish you could tell them how sorry you are but you don’t because you feel like it’s pointless, so you just keep it to yourself. But you’re also saying sorry to yourself. You’re sorry that you allowed yourself to let someone hurt you like this and wish you would have walked away a long time ago.

    Hope that helps!
    Flag SamiJean16on July 20, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:iv cried to this song the first fue days after i moved away from my old home because i had fallen in love with the boy who lived next door to me this songs about leaving things or people your acustom to things you'll always know and no one there to tell you its all ganna be ok and as said "we know its never simple never easy never a clean break no one here to save me your the only thing i know like the back of my hand" i love this song you rock taylor!!!
    Flag ToniMaireon March 30, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:this is her best song on fearless
    i hope they did a single of it
    Flag TaylorSwiftFan19on July 14, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i love taylor swift. and alot of her music describes what im going through at certain points in my life. this song relates to me right now. ' people are people and sometimes we change our minds' i've changed my mind so many times within the past 3 months that you wouldnt think it would be possible. between my friends, family and boys i have had issues with them all.
    'and we know its never simple. never easy'. im fifteen and i feel like the whole world is against me at times. i feel like constantly everyone is watching me. everyone knows my business and i hate it. i've pushed some of the people that mean the most to me away because i feel like they just judge me. even though they only try to help. swift has helped me realise that im not the only one who has these days! <3
    Flag jomilne1203on June 20, 2011   Link

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