Barry Mann quotes:

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.

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

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

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

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

Who put the bomp in the bomp-bomp-bomp-bomp-bomp, who put the ram in the rama-lama-ding-dong?

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Probably most successful songwriters have an innate songwriting ability.

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.

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

We became the songs we wrote.

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

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

You're going to have more rejection than acceptance.

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