You need to understand that a skilled professional songwriter can accelerate your success as an already talented musician. These people are writing every single day, so their craft is really sharp, and it's the best songwriters who consistently get on the radio.

Yeah... I was a singer as a kid. I had a lot of stage fright, and what's happened with 'Idol,' it has got me past so much of that.

There's a lot of craft that goes into achieving a hit song - at the beginning of your career, you're usually more inspiration than craft, and you get great when those intersect. A skilled songwriter can get you to that intersection.

I don't think people really understood what I did. And you know, in my book, 'A Helluva High Note' deals with my back story, that I was a songwriter, that I spent years trying to hone my craft and being rejected and then finally becoming a successful songwriter, record executive and publisher.

The really great writers are people like Emily Bronte who sit in a room and write out of their limited experience and unlimited imagination.

I learned a long time ago that reality was much weirder than anyone's imagination.

How content-driven cinema worked so well... Yeah, the shift is definitely happening... It is such a good change, and it is the kind of change I would like to see so that we just go to watch a film and not put them into brackets - that this is an art film or commercial movie.

I think people love to attach themselves to the idea of an overnight success. That may be true about me.