I don't feel like we have that Paul McCartney gene, and I think the cool thing about us is that we know it.
I don't think 'pop' should mean that you had no talent.
Some people have said that I can 'hear' a hit song, meaning that I can tell the first time a song is played for me if it has potential. I have been able to hear some of the hits that way, but I can also 'feel' one.
I never had a doubt in my mind. I always knew that, with the right material, I could pop a hit.
I play piano, by ear. Yes, I write songs... and good ones.
Some of the best songs I've written, I've written in 10 minutes.
It seems like if they'd given Bob Dylan a pen and paper in the cradle that he would've come up with a great song. I'd love to write songs like that.
James Hetfield, I mean, the minute he plugs in his guitar and adjusts the tone knob, he comes up with the world's greatest riff.
I don't think I'm a great songwriter, but I think I've learned a lot about it, and I don't think there's any one way to do it. I don't think I can control it at all. I can just kind of hope that it happens.
I'd love to say that I could write political songs, but I don't feel clued-up enough.
In an age of incompetence, I've been able to last in this crazy business. I actually know how to play my ax and write a song. That's my job.
I like Sam Bailey - she's got a huge voice.
I always was really confident about myself, about my voice, myself as a person, my body, all of those things, but as a songwriter - I just didn't identify as a songwriter at all.
You know, Tupac would go into the studio and make like six or seven songs in one day. That's how he operated. He was real quick with his pen.
A true musician, like Johnny Cash, should be able to walk into a room with nothing but an instrument and capture people's attention for two hours.
I don't know anyone who sits down to write a song hit except Irving Berlin. He can't help writing hits.
Probably most successful songwriters have an innate songwriting ability.
I think Bridge Over Troubled Water was a very good song. Artie sang it beautifully. The Boxer was a really nice record. But I don't think I've written any great songs.
Musically, I would never run dry. Any time I sit down to an instrument, I could write a song.
One thing that you hope for when you want to be a musician is that you have that recognizable sound.
I think Don Henley is a brilliant contemporary rock writer. He would have been a fabulous poet if he weren't a musician. He was a literary major, and not only that - he's gifted with a brilliant voice. To me, Don could sing the New York City Yellow Pages and I'd buy it. I just love the sound of his voice.
Every song I've written is luck, I think; it's luck - 'How did that just happen?'
I don't want to be nasty but let's just say Robbie Williams is no Freddie Mercury.
I can't judge myself by 'God Only Knows.' No one writes songs as good as that.
I'm not a trained musician or singer, but I can turn out a song.
