I dont think you can look for love. All you can do is get yourself in a situation where you dont discourage something that may be rather nice.

Up until about a hundred years ago, the world was dark at night. You got to have a real night so you could sleep.

I think the zenith of popular songwriting to the United States of America was that period that started in the '20s and went into the '50s. It was the period of the great American standard song.

Cocaine made people deaf, it made people dead and it made people real obnoxious.

The dream world of sleep and the dream world of music are not far apart. I often catch glimpses of one as I pass through a door to the other, like encountering a neighbor in the hallway going into the apartment next to one’s own. In the recording studio, I would often lie down to nap and wake up with harmony parts fully formed in my mind, ready to be recorded. I think of music as dreaming in sound.

I think if the United States gave anything to culture at large in the 20th century, the most important contribution made was the popular song.

Everybody has their own level of doing their music. ... Mine just happened to resonate over the years, in one way and another, with a significant enough number of people so that I could do it professionally.