Cynthia Weil Quotes

I don't go into any album with pressing issues. I just try to write songs.

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 don't think there is anything hard at all about having a lot of songs. It makes it easier to be less precious about them, and know that everybody's going to want to work on some of them.

Writing 'February' made me realize that breaking form is a way of letting the song be human.

I was in school for four years writing music to please my teachers. That was not music I liked. And when I make music that isn't for something I want to make, and it's to please other people, it's - the outcome is really bad.

It's hard to be in the limelight and write songs that cater to fans that have expectations of you. We just want to write songs that we love, but all the different people with different ideas coming in make it difficult. We have to ask ourselves if we're writing for the most important people: the fans.

I'm writing songs that I want to sing.

I've never gone to a singer with a song and said 'why don't you try this?' or tried to get a record like that. My head just wasn't there.

I've never written a 'Revolver' or a 'Pet Sounds.'

I'm trying to write songs to appeal to everybody.

I've always been very independent, and I love being able to enjoy different parts of music. It's amazing to be able to hear the sound in your head and instantly make it come to life.

People will go through 50 beats from a producer and pick the best ones, go make a song on that beat. That's cool, but someone coming to me and hearing what I've been working on, picking out pieces of all of that, and then adding some of their own ideas is way more exciting.

One of the nice things about songwriting is you can be inspired by absolutely anything.

I never really had the chance to play the kind of music I wanted to play. It was always just classical. It had its limits. I play piano now and again in the new forms of music that I actually want to play, but at the time, it was something that I just kind of moved past.

I have never composed a song keeping in mind that I should touch any social issues.

For us, we make a song, and if we like it, it goes on a record.

Here's the deal: You can't go in with the intent that, 'All right, we're gonna write another 'Free Bird' or 'What's Your Name.'' You can't think about it in those terms, because you'll never outdo your history.

Having been subjected to the pigeonholing of Hollywood myself, I realized that once you become a studio-approved director, your chances of ever making your own film again are zero. You make the films that the studio wants you to make.

I worked on 'Cadillactica' with the mind to not sample as much and focus on creativity.

Nothing competes with the buzz of making your own record.

Every time somebody asks me, 'Oh, when you mix your own music, what are you going to make?' And I don't know.

Whichever chord progressions move me, whether it's rock, jazz, doo-wop or soul, I'm going to put it together and not be worried about whether people can put it in a lane or not.

I'm not trying to chase a radio hit, but at a certain time, you can't make the same album over and over.

I consider myself more of a producer and a musician than a DJ.

I think of the pop music that I've made in the past and hear on the radio as candy bars. And I was really good at making candy bars.