“A guitar riff played on a piano doesn’t come close to the purity of it being played on a guitar but I faked it enough to get by.”

You can get stale writing with each other for a while.

You’re going to have more rejection than acceptance.

Who put the bomp in the bomp-bomp-bomp-bomp-bomp, who put the ram in the rama-lama-ding-dong?

You’ve got to really be able to accept the rejection.

I think if one wants to be in a continual state of insanity one should stay married to that writing partner.

We became the songs we wrote.

One other thing, if it’s possible, as songwriters, you should also develop yourself as record producers.

There’s so much fear involved in trying to do something you don’t know how to do that drugs and alcohol can become a big part of your life if you have an addictive personality or are very unsure, which most songwriters are.

I think that most writers who wait until they’re inspired to write are just waiting for the fear to subside.

I get a different kind of lyric from someone else that might make me go in a different musical direction.

I also used to work in the Catskill Mountains as a bus boy, and I performed in talent shows.

It’s amazing how a competitive nature can turn a negative into something positive.

It’s very hard to teach someone how to write a song if to begin with there’s no creative crop to harvest.

You have to be very brave in that first writing session.

Probably most successful songwriters have an innate songwriting ability.

No matter what you do, you’ll never run away from you.

I am not a politician and I have no intention of being one.

I wouldn’t think I would coach again, because it would just be hard not being in the Cowboys’ blue.

It’s not that I take pride in being unfashionable. It’s just that I’ve gotten used to it.

To be Catholic is the only way of being fully and utterly Christian.

There is an immense, painful longing for a broader, more flexible, fuller, more coherent, more comprehensive account of what we human beings are, who we are and what this life is for.

Growing up in America is like being taught to be stupid.

You definitely want your kids to understand their heritage, but I don’t want my kids to just focus on being black. They are people. I don’t want them to judge other people or to be judged.

I’ve done a great job at being universal in my stand-up, which is why, for ‘Let Me Explain,’ I toured all over the world. These movies I have coming out – ‘Ride Along,’ ‘Grudge Match,’ ‘About Last Night,’ ‘Think Like a Man Too’ – are putting me in a position to become universal on an even bigger scale.