Cynthia Weil
You made a lot of mistakes, and you wrote a lot of crap. But it was all part of the learning process.Collection: Learning
We have gone through some difficult times like everyone else and perhaps our working together and respecting each other's abilities, in addition to that little thing called love, helped us survive.
We are the yin and the yang of the creative process.
That's what it is every time you walk into the room to write with someone new. It's like, oh god I have to take my clothes off 'my creative clothes' and let them see all of my flaws.
Actually I was writing with people that didn't get records.
I wanted to write for Broadway.
She could only write with him at night and she was wasting her days just sitting around. So he thought I could write with her during the day. And that was Carole King.
It was kind of like songwriter's boot camp. You had to produce. You had to produce fast. You had to learn.
My nature is to be linear, and when I'm not, I feel really proud of myself.
But I'm someone who the more afraid I am, the more I want to do it to get the fear over with.
I can't seem to write young enough anymore.
Even when I think I'm writing really young, they say it's too mature.
Barry and I were in the middle of building a house, and I was in the midst of having a nervous breakdown, because that's what you do when you build a house.
A lot of guys spend their lives saying no because it's an easier way to keep your job.
You just have to believe in yourself when you've got something, and just keep pounding on the door, because if you pound long enough, somebody is going to open it.
There is the great creative part of it. The writing is the best part.
We all have fertile creative periods and times when we can't figure out how we ever did it.
We wrote what sounded good to us and hoped it would find a home.
The business today is completely different and it's very producer driven, so that a songwriter needs to have producing chops, be a singer/songwriter, or find a singer to develop.
We were very fortunate to have been on the scene when we were.
That first writing session, what Dan Hill calls a creative blind date, is always a real challenge, and you bring that back to your partner when you return to writing with them.
Barry is an incredible singer. He's even gotten better through the years.
The main reason he wanted to be a recording artist was because it gives you much more freedom in your writing. You only have to please the artist and the artist is you so you can be more daring and experimental.
On the other hand when you are someone who records their own songs you are basically stuck writing for one voice and for one style that can stifle you a bit. It's a real trade off.
Sharing a triumph with someone you love is an incredible high.
Although I like the work I've done in the past, I like what I'm writing now even more.
When you feel good about what youve written, there is just no high that is greater.Collection: Feel Good
The business today is completely different and it's very producer driven, so that a songwriter needs to have producing chops, be a singer, songwriter, or find a singer to develop.Collection: Business
But also there are all the famous stories about the songs that have been rejected, but then went on to become hits.Collection: Song