Barry Mann

I think that most writers who wait until they’re inspired to write are just waiting for the fear to subside.

If I waited for inspiration every time I sat down to write a song I probably would be a plumber today.

Probably most successful songwriters have an innate songwriting ability.

If we were the team that won out, then life was good and we felt that we were worth something.

If we didn’t get the record, we didn’t exist.

You have to be very brave in that first writing session.

You’re going to have more rejection than acceptance.

Cynthia’s lyrics always expressed the feelings people felt but they couldn’t express themselves.

You can get stale writing with each other for a while.

I quit college. I was studying architecture for about a year.

A guitar riff played on a piano doesn’t come close to the purity of it being played on a guitar but I faked it enough to get by.

The real danger of writing a great song when you’re on something is that it might get you thinking that the only way to repeat that is by only writing when you’re high.

We lived, ate, and breathed pop songs.

I looked through our catalog year by year, and I saw that there were pockets of time when we wrote some terrific songs. Then all of a sudden, we’d go for another two or three months and there weren’t great songs.

We’ve written something like 900 songs in all.

We became the songs we wrote.

You’ve got to really be able to accept the rejection.

I get a different kind of lyric from someone else that might make me go in a different musical direction.

There’s so much fear involved in trying to do something you don’t know how to do that drugs and alcohol can become a big part of your life if you have an addictive personality or are very unsure, which most songwriters are.

You have certain writing tools but generally creating something from nothing makes one quite mad and Cynthia and I are quite mad you know.

I think if one wants to be in a continual state of insanity one should stay married to that writing partner.

I also used to work in the Catskill Mountains as a bus boy, and I performed in talent shows.

It’s amazing how a competitive nature can turn a negative into something positive.

I’ve written songs sober and I’ve written songs high.

I know at the beginning of our careers, my wife and I were gut wrenchingly competitive.

It’s very hard to teach someone how to write a song if to begin with there’s no creative crop to harvest.

One other thing, if it’s possible, as songwriters, you should also develop yourself as record producers.

It’s very important, at least for me and for Cynthia, to get outside input.