Pastoral Resources

To know how to suggest is the great art of teaching. To attain it we must be able to guess what will interest; we must learn to read the childish soul as we might a piece of music. Then, by simply changing the key, we keep up the attraction and vary the song.

Musically, I always allow myself to jump off of cliffs. At least that's what it feels like to me. Whether that's what it actually sounds like might depend on what the listener brings to the songs.

If I can't get a mental image from the song, I won't sing it.

My grandmother was a teacher, my sister was a teacher, my daughter was a teacher and is now a superintendent in northern California, and my son-in-law is a high school principal. I am surrounded.

I think some people found the production took away from the actual songs, which I can understand.

My life has been one great big joke, a dance that's walked a song that's spoke, I laugh so hard I almost choke when I think about myself.

I just couldn't get anyone to sing my songs, so I had to sing my own tunes.

I had this talent for these stupid little teenage songs.

When you write songs, you can't really point out the exact thing you're inspired by. It's more a state or a mood or an atmosphere that you're trying to put into words.

Sometimes you're trapped in writing songs and you don't have enough distance from what you do anymore and you need the talent and the years of other people to come and jump in.

It's always a mixture of fiction and your own story. It's more I recreate atmospheres and moods through songs.

My success? Being born the son of Moses Annenberg.

While I've had a great distaste for what's usually called song in modern poetry or for what's usually called music, I really don't think of speech as so far from song.

For several centuries what has passed for song in literary circles was any text that looked like the lyrics for a commonplace melodic setting.

I know what my job is: I write the songs, I sing them, I play them on the piano.

I'm not used to not having enough time to live with the songs. Usually, if I write something, I live with it for a little while.

I wanted to write a happy song. I didn't know how.

After that I didn't listen to music as much because '70s music just wasn't... I remember all the songs, but it wasn't because I was into them, you know what I mean?

I had to be at least 8 or 9; I was listening to everything on the radio. You name it, I heard every song.

I would have to work on the song and figure out how they wanted the song done, because they're such high-intensity songs. We figure that out first, then I go back and listen to it and go over and rehearse stuff with it and try to get a feel for the words.