A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.

The line contrasts instrumental speech (having “an answer”) with expressive utterance (having “a song”). It suggests that some acts of creation—art, music, poetry, testimony—do not need to justify themselves as solutions or arguments; they arise from an inner necessity to voice experience. Read this way, the “bird” becomes a figure for the human spirit: expression can be a form of survival, joy, or identity rather than a response to a question. The aphorism also implicitly defends art’s autonomy, valuing sincerity and vitality over utility, and encourages speaking or creating even amid uncertainty.