"Rap culture is interesting and different and has purpose but it has a non-romantic view of life and of social feelings. There may be a void in that."

"Pop songs are not as graceful as they used to be. Performers today haven't gone through the regimen of learning how to write. And of course, everyone wants to own copyrights."

"One thing a lyricist must learn is not to fall in love with his own lines. Once you learn that, you can walk away from the lyric and look at it with a reasonable degree of objectivity."

"In writing, I search for believability, simplicity and emotional impact."

"Art in Nature is rhythmic and has a horror of constraint."

"Poetry teaches us music, metaphor, condensation and specificity."

"I mean, I kind of remember... I'm 36 now, so it's kind of hard for me to relate to what it was like when I was 25, or 24, but I do remember a period in time when that's how I defined who I was, by the music I listened to and the movies I went to."

"I've been called many names like perfectionist, difficult and obsessive. I think it takes obsession, takes searching for the details for any artist to be good."