Barry Mann (born Barry Imberman;[1] February 9, 1939)[2] is an American songwriter and musician, and was part of a successful songwriting partnership with his wife, Cynthia Weil. (wikipedia)
You have certain writing tools but generally creating something from nothing makes one quite mad and Cynthia and I are quite mad you know.
You can get stale writing with each other for a while.
We became the songs we wrote.
Probably most successful songwriters have an innate songwriting ability.
I've written songs sober and I've written songs high.
I quit college. I was studying architecture for about a year.
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.
Cynthia's lyrics always expressed the feelings people felt but they couldn't express themselves.
I also used to work in the Catskill Mountains as a bus boy, and I performed in talent shows.