Elizabeth Barrett Browning could write a poem two pages long. Could she have brought it to a music publisher?

A song doesn't just come on. I've always had to tease it out, squeeze it out. 'No thesaurus can give you those words, no rhyming dictionary. They must happen out of you.

A songwriter should have friends who are similarly interested; should move about in the milieu of work he has chosen for himself.

Love is the reason for it all.

The songwriter mustn't fall in love with his own song. If it doesn't belong, he can't push it into a show. Let him save it; maybe it'll fit in another show.

Write what you feel. Write because of that need for expression.

There aren't more lady songwriters for the same reason that there aren't more lady doctors or lady accountants or lady lawyers; not enough women have the time for careers.