The challenge in writing the songs for The Aristocats truly fell on the animators & director of the film. Robert & I wrote the initial songs for the film, just prior to leaving full-time employment at the Walt Disney Studios. Therefore, some of the songs we wrote for The Aristocats were never used. I believe, therefore, the challenge fell upon the makers of the film to select what songs made the final cut.

If you want to judge me, I can handle it.

Both criticism and praise is part of putting yourself out there.

The edge came from the slights I've had throughout my life, the slights I have dealt with through the entirety of my life. It wasn't one day when somebody said something and that made me upset and now I'm over it. I'm not going to stop playing with an edge because that's what got me here. That's just how I play the game. I can't play any other way.

All films created by Walt Disney at the time of his major outpouring of work were carefully crafted to fit scenes, characters, moods and situations. If these elements changed in any way, songs - no matter how good they were - were discarded. Others were written for the new scenes. Many times, character songs were dropped because characters were dropped...sequences were dropped etc.

Work hard and believe in yourself even when nobody else believes in you.

But people find it easy to take shots on Twitter, and to use racial slurs and bullying language far worse than what you'll see from me. It's sad and somewhat unbelievable to me that the world is still this way, but it is. I can handle it.