“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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

If I waited for inspiration every time I sat down to write a song I probably would be a plumber today.

I have tried drugs and a little of everything else, and there is nothing in the world more soul-satisfying than having the kingdom of God building inside you and growing.

Books are a habit-forming drug.

Drugs are for idiots. I’m never going to be that person.

See, if you look at the drug war from a purely economic point of view, the role of the government is to protect the drug cartel. That’s literally true.

I was, I am and I always will be a drug addict. A person who gets involved in drugs has to fight it everyday.

One role of prohibition is in making the drug market more lucrative.

I used to do drugs. I still do drugs. But I used to, too.

Success and failure are both difficult to endure. Along with success come drugs, divorce, fornication, bullying, travel, meditation, medication, depression, neurosis and suicide. With failure comes failure.