Graham Linehan Quotes

A big part of the Motown formula was, they took music and turned it into this sort of automotive assembly line. They were cranking out 10 songs a day in that studio, or more.

I don't think it's so hard to be commercial and interesting. Look at Prince, or Neil Young.

You know, I've released some great records and I've released some dogs. But frankly, the fun is in creating the thing.

I don't believe in the philosophy of stumbling across hit records.

You write a hit the same way you write a flop.

I've never worried about how a new release will be received. I simply try to do the best I can and leave the rest to the gods. The music industry in those terms is something I loathe and detest. It conjures up images of a gigantic factory spewing out parts of the machine.

It's a total big difference between a person that got lyrics and a person that can make hit singles. I'm a person that can make some hit singles. I'm not in no booth trying to be a lyrical genius. I'm preparing to make me some singles, and as I develop as a man, then they'll respect my emcee skills.

Sometimes, I make 50 songs and pick out the best 10. I've been in the studio all day, all night, making the beat, writing the raps. You never know what's gonna be a hit.

I work very closely with my publisher and just give them tons and tons of music, and then they link that with different songwriters and stuff. I'm basically a workaholic. So, I figured I might as well just start working outside.

Berry Gordy turned his house into a studio and discovered over 30 acts in the city. And we're famous all over the world.

As a producer, you're pretty much creating a body of work that an artist has to stand behind.

I've toured the U.S. every single year and I've put a record out every single year whether it was on a major label or not; that doesn't make any difference to me.

I had a long, long time to make 'Rubberband,' and I originally thought that that record would last two years. Once I got over realizing that that's not gonna happen, and sort of got my perspective back, I realized, 'Man I'm really fortunate. I get to write music, make music for a living.'

Following in the footsteps of Berry Gordy, I always admire what he did.

People send me songs all the time that are literally no-brainer hits... but for me, I'm an artist because I'm a writer.

I stopped writing lyrics down on paper after me and Jay-Z did 'Money In the Bank.' They're something I just hold in my mind.

I live in L.A., and whenever I get together with anybody to write, everybody is obsessed and fearful and wants to write a hit for everyone else. They wanna write a hit for Rihanna; they wanna write a hit for Katy Perry.

The music industry is really difficult.

A sold-out crowd is better than a number one. But being in the studio is better than all of that.

Sometimes I go in and try to write beats, but I just trash 'em, and then the next time I go in, I'll make like six beats - six legit, nice beats. I'm really particular with how it needs to sound.

I don't sit down to write a number one hit. I'm not that good at my job - I don't know how to do that.

There's a lot of creativity in the industry, but I don't necessarily think that the most creative DJs or producers are always the biggest ones.

Working with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis was crazy.

The first writers I knew about were Motown's Holland-Dozier-Holland.

When I first started writing songs, I was probably about ten or twelve years old, and the first thing you think as a songwriter is, 'Can this be a hit? Can this come out, and people are going to hear the song and like the song, and then they're going to like you, and you'll get famous and rich?' That hasn't changed a bit.