Keep it in tune with the times, but don't write with the specific purpose of trying to create a hit. If you're doing it strictly to make money, you're crazy. There are easier ways to make money.

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

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.

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

Grab your coat, and get your hat Leave your worry on the doorstep Just direct your feet To the sunny side of the street.

I do not think men have more talent. There are a great many women in the arts; novelists, painters, sculptors, poets-but the proportion is far lower in the field of song writing.

I don't care how good a song is. If it holds back the storyline, stalls the plot, your audience will reject it.