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 began to be impressed by what made a good book-how you needed to have a sensible story, a plot that developed, with a beginning, a middle, and an end that would tie everything together.

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.

A song just doesn't come on. I've always had to tease it out, squeeze it out.

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