All there is to writing is having ideas. To learn to write is to learn to have ideas.

I write to find out what I didn't know I knew.

A song is like a dream, and you have to make it come true. They're like strange countries that you have to enter. You can write a song anywhere, in a railroad compartment, on a boat, on horseback -- it helps to be moving. Sometimes people who have the greatest talent for writing songs never write any because they are not moving.

I wish I could write easily. I'm one of those guys who's visited by the muse when things are dire.

Most thinkers write badly, because they communicate not only their thoughts, but also the thinking of them.

Write without pay until somebody offers to pay you. If nobody offers within three years, sawing wood is what you were intended for.