When I did 'Tapestry' with Carole King, the record was spare and simple, like a demo. If someone had told me to go back and put horns on it, it would've been all wrong. If you're enthusiastic enough to sign an artist, let them do what got you enthusiastic.

In making films, you're dealing with hundreds of people and a crew, but eventually, it's you and an editor, and that part of it, I liked it a lot. The experience on 'Up in Smoke' was great. I really enjoyed it.

I made an enormous amount of money in the record business as a result of owning so much of what I was doing... I owned all those albums and continued to own my catalog.

I never had a particular sound. There was no Lou Adler sound like there's a Phil Spector sound. I always tried to make the records about the artists and their particular sound.

There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.

Without imagination and without love, life can be pretty bleak. I think having both will get you through the most dire of situations.

I don't remember deciding to become a writer. You decide to become a dentist or a postman. For me, writing is like being gay. You finally admit that this is who you are, you come out and hope that no one runs away.

The growth of art seems to be in cycles, and often its vigorous lifetime is restricted to a century or two. The periods of distinctive drama, Greek, English, Spanish, fall within such a limit; the schools of painting and sculpture likewise; and, in poetry, the Victorian age or the school of Pope will serve as examples.