We like to think about how smart we are. But I think talent as a writer is hard-wired in it's all there at least the basic elements of it. You can't change it any more than you can choose whether to be right handed or left handed.

But I think talent as a writer is hard-wired in it's all there at least the basic elements of it. You can't change it any more than you can choose whether to be right handed or left handed.

I think the true test of a pop song for me and I've talked to a lot of other writers about this is you take your demo you pop it in your car and you drive down Sunset Blvd. to Santa Monica and that's the Hollywood car test.

One thing that worried me was how writers get categorized and so they end up having to write the same kind of book again and again. That is fine if it is what you want to do but I would rather be locked in the trunk of my car with a weasel than write the same book every three years until I die.

If you are a writer you locate yourself behind a wall of silence and no matter what you are doing driving a car or walking or doing housework you can still be writing because you have that space.

I think a lot of writers male and female write as if their parents were killed in a car accident when they were 2 and they have no one to hold accountable. And unfortunately I don't have that. I have parents who I care about what they think.

I have several writer friends but I don't involve them in my work process. I'm more likely to talk about the business of publishing with them.

I've never seen a worse situation than that of young writers in the United States. The publishing business in North America is so commercialized.

I learned what I really love is making films not the film business. I want to be on the set meeting with writers I want that freedom. I love it now.

The stores and the things like that the business side of things came out at the point when I'd say probably in the early '70s it looked like the year of the singer-songwriter was over 'cause music changed in our time and the spotlight was out.