I don't work at being ordinary.
I think people who create and write, it actually does flow-just flows from into their head, into their hand, and they write it down. It's simple.
When I sit down to write a song, it's a kind of improvisation, but I formalize it a bit to get it into the studio, and when I step up to a microphone, I have a vague idea of what I'm about to do.
What I have to say is all in the music. If I want to say anything, I write a song.
Somebody said to me, 'But the Beatles were anti-materialistic.' That's a huge myth. John and I literally used to sit down and say, 'Now, let's write a swimming pool.'
A lot of artists use memories. A lot of prose writers, a lot of poets, a lot of songwriters, refer back to something. Generally it's all you've got, unless you're brilliant and can write totally in the now.
I'm still looking to write a great song.... You always are. You know, you never think, 'Well, that's enough ... that's good enough.'
It's not unusual for writers to look backward. Because that's your pool of resources. If you were to write something now, I bet there's a pretty good chance you'd call on your teenage years, your experiences then, stuff you learned then.
When I write, there are times -- not always -- when I hear John (Lennon) in my head, ... I'll think, OK, what would we have done here?, and I can hear him gripe or approve.
I'm only 49 years old. I'm still in the middle of this whole thing. I don't feel like it's finished at all. I'm still planning to write better songs.
There are two things John and I always do when we're going to sit down and write a song. First of all we sit down. Then we think about writing a song.
John could write a mean song. He had a lot of venom in him. Whereas I had a happy childhood.
But with writers, there's nothing wrong with melancholy. It's an important color in writing.
Sometimes you write a song in a certain era and it's got a certain kind of significance.
I lost my voice. I'd never had to cancel a show before and I had to walk around with a pad and a pen, writing things down.
Sometimes when you write a thing you think, 'Oh, this is good', and it's not a modesty or an immodesty thing, you just... it's just the same with anything; when you write a piece you just figure, 'Oh yeah, I'm on a roll here. This is good; I'm getting the hang of this'. Some pieces are better than others.
I just start singing some words with a tune. I don't ever write a song thinking, Now I'll write a song about... .
I'm always writing songs, and I've got a bunch that I want to record.
I think when you're making an album, as the songs are piling up, one of the good things about it is that you will often write the song that you need.
Domesticity is the enemy of art. I don't know if that's true. You can write good happy songs. So, I don't think it's necessarily happiness. But I think self-satisfaction is maybe the enemy. It's kind of better to think, "Tomorrow night I'm gonna sing it better." There is this forward effort. It feels to me right, it feels human.
Every love song I write is for Linda.
People think once you get famous and rich you move out of the public sphere and you have nothing left to write about. I've heard that - Bruce Springsteen was this real street boy, now he's got this big house. How does that compute? If you don't look at the material side of someone's life, if you look at more the emotional side, there's always a wealth of stuff to write about.
I'm not into, Hey, what's your sign? or any of that. But I don't know how I got here, and I don't know how I write songs. I don't know why I breathe.
I think a domestic situation can change you and your attitudes. I suppose if you did get a bit content, then you might not write savage lyrics.
