I kept looking to do songs that were written years ago and would live or outlive all of us, and the one thing they had in common was Sinatra.
A true friend is someone who is always there during the ups and downs, I actually have a song called 'True Friend'.
For Ripley I learned to play some songs on the piano, and I never really played them again.
When I'm a part of someone else's creative process, it's all about facilitating their ideas and hopefully bringing their perspective and making it a part of a song.
If part of the purpose of making an album is to get some radio play, then you might as well think about that. But that's not really how we picked the songs.
Lonely trees are not lonely; they have their eternal companies: Songs of the birds; shadows of the clouds; lights of the Moon; whispers of the winds… Lonely trees are not lonely!
The words we construct, the poems we write and the songs we sing, become the love story of a stranger we have never seen.
88% of what we call good songs aren’t really good. They merely remind us of a good time we once had.
I started recording because I was always complaining about the records that I was getting of my songs. At least if I did them and messed them up, I wouldn't have anyone else to blame.
I was a storyteller for The Band. It was never, 'Hey guys, here's a song about what happened to me.' I was always more comfortable writing fiction.
Being a songwriter does not rely on an audience or other band members or a camera. I can just sit in a room and write songs.
I'm mainstream, and I have pretty chart-tastic tastes. I don't often veer away from a big melodic song with big words for big stadiums.
I'm not full of malice, but I do dislike Neil Diamond a lot, and I'm sorry that I've done a Neil Diamond song.
People are quite shocked when you remind them that Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra never wrote a song that they recorded in their lives, as far as I know.
I was five years old when I wrote my first song. It was out of longing for my father that I wrote it.
I wish to resist the temptation to kiss... By super magic animals (Song: The Temptation) A visual poem about unfulfilled love...
Beck said he didn't believe in the theory of a song coming through you as if you were an open vessel. I agree with him to a certain extent.
The songs certainly have not made my fortune, but I am still grateful for the royalties when they come in.
I don't know if I'd ever sing a whole album because I don't know if I'd want to hear my voice for more than three or four songs.
I've been writing joke songs since I was a kid and it served me well at S.N.L. I can write those in my sleep. In fact, I have.
I don't think you could pull one Bob Marley song that didn't have quotes from the Torah or the Old Testament.
