No matter what you do, you'll never run away from you.
If I waited for inspiration every time I sat down to write a song I probably would be a plumber today.
It's very hard to teach someone how to write a song if to begin with there's no creative crop to harvest.
I think that most writers who wait until they're inspired to write are just waiting for the fear to subside.
Cynthia's lyrics always expressed the feelings people felt but they couldn't express themselves.
You're going to have more rejection than acceptance.
Who put the bomp in the bomp-bomp-bomp-bomp-bomp, who put the ram in the rama-lama-ding-dong?
It's amazing how a competitive nature can turn a negative into something positive.
I also used to work in the Catskill Mountains as a bus boy, and I performed in talent shows.
We became the songs we wrote.
I've written songs sober and I've written songs high.
Probably most successful songwriters have an innate songwriting ability.
There's so much fear involved in trying to do something you don't know how to do that drugs and alcohol can become a big part of your life if you have an addictive personality or are very unsure, which most songwriters are.
You can get stale writing with each other for a while.
You have certain writing tools but generally creating something from nothing makes one quite mad and Cynthia and I are quite mad you know.
I quit college. I was studying architecture for about a year.
I get a different kind of lyric from someone else that might make me go in a different musical direction.
You've got to really be able to accept the rejection.
One other thing, if it's possible, as songwriters, you should also develop yourself as record producers.
I know at the beginning of our careers, my wife and I were gut wrenchingly competitive.
A guitar riff played on a piano doesn't come close to the purity of it being played on a guitar but I faked it enough to get by.
I think if one wants to be in a continual state of insanity one should stay married to that writing partner.
You have to be very brave in that first writing session.
