Paul McCartney Quotes

I don't know how to make magic. For most songwriter's that has only happened once or twice, and I don't know how to re-create that. I know that there are some tricks and tools, but the magic is the amazing part.

I called the guys from Promise of the Real, whom I've been playing with, and they were all on the road. Right after I hung up the phone, I wrote another song and started writing another, and I'm going, "Hey, I can't wait. I should be doing this now!" My experience tells me that when it's there, it's there, and you can't make it wait. So I got Jimmy Keltner and Paul Bushnell, two good guys, and went in and did this record ["Peace Trail"].

Song ideas have come to me in the middle of interviews, in the shower, or while I'm writing another song.

Every day you can write a song but some days there is just some magic in the air and something special about the catch; other days you write all day on a song line or idea.

What happens a lot with songwriting is that a melody or rhythm or something stays with you like catching a cold. And during that time what happens is that I can then fit things on to it, it all fits and glues together. Sometimes it's crazy cos it can almost be anything. But if you catch the cold then the nonsense makes sense. It's like you're getting beamed it, like with a ouija board and something's pushing your hand. It's not a pleasant experience necessarily.

Writing every song is a little journey. The first note has to lift you.

I have tried to write songs quickly that get scrapped. I've also taken a long time on songs that get scrapped because you can over-think something, and you've squeezed the life out of it. As opposed to work of art, it looks like a really great work of craftsmanship.

When I get an idea for a song it would gel in my mind for weeks or months, and then one day just like that, Ill write it.

I get so many ideas for songs, but I'm so seldom disciplined enough to sit down and crank them out.

No, no, the songs write themselves, almost.

There is a formula that allows you to write a decent song. But a song like 'You're All I Need to Get By,' it just writes itself.

But over a period of time It's the melodic things that are in my head all day.

I just get an idea and then all of a sudden I've got a song.

One day a whole damn song fell into place in my head.

I've never really suffered complete and utter writer's block, really. I equate it with sex: in the beginning of my career, I was writing five songs a week; now, I occasionally write a song. But it's an exciting moment when it happens!

I don't write a great song every day. I don't write a great song every couple weeks. It comes in such random times.

There's an element to songwriting that I can't explain, that comes from somewhere else. I can't explain that dividing line between nothing and something that happens within a song, where you have absolutely nothing, and then suddenly you have something. It's like the origin of the universe.

Some of the best songs I've written, I've written in 10 minutes.

There's usually a rhythm and a melody in my head, and that creates an emotional state.

Sometimes I'll come up with a lick that I really love, and I'll try to put the right words to it for years. Suddenly something comes to me that works just right.

I'm definitely using different parts of myself, but I think when it comes down to words and melodies, I can't really force anything too much.

I don't know what aids creativity. All I know is that it feels natural to hold a guitar in my hands and sing.

There was never an 'a-ha' moment when a spider bit me and I knew I could write songs. For that reason, I don't know if I'm always going to be able to. I want to write songs forever, but it's an elusive thing.

I get a lot of my songwriting done while driving around Nashville - sometimes it comes to me that way.

What I can feel the most and what I can remember the most are the melodies I want to write to.