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A BIG PART OF SONGWRITING, like all writing, is editing-distilling thought down to essentials. Novice writers often hide behind filigree. In many cases the artistry is in what is unsaid. As the old saying goes, an iceberg moves gracefully because most of it is beneath the surface.

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In writing songs I've learned as much from Cézanne as I have from Woody Guthrie.

My sense of rhyme used to be more involved in my songwriting than it is... Still staying in the unconscious frame of mind, you can pull yourself out and throw up two rhymes first and work it back. You get the rhymes first and work it back and then see if you can make it make sense in another kind of way. You can still stay in the unconscious frame of mind to pull it off, which is the state of mind you have to be in anyway.

As far as songwriting, my inspirations came from love, life and death, and viewing other people's situations.

My experience with songwriting is usually so confessional, it's so drawn from my own life and my own stories.

Writing for other artists helped me figure out that magic you have to capture to make everyone connect with a song.

I don't think people care about the mechanics of songwriting.