 Composition is definitely what I'm born to do, and it came last. |
| I wanted to produce Nancy LaMott's albums, so I created my own record company. |
| When my writing really started to take off was when I made a decision that I would write only what I wanted to write, and if 10 people wanted to hear it, that's fine. |
| I may not be the most famous songwriter in the world, but you know a David Friedman song when you hear it. It took me a long time to appreciate that. |
| I think of my songs as there to be something to move people emotionally. |
| I'm not comfortable singing in front of people yet. That's going to take another 100 performances. |
| As a person, I'm not that hopeful, but somehow the hopeful part of me reveals itself through my songs. |
| My first career was as a coach and a teacher. |
| I've been doing a lot of studying singing, and I'm thinking of recording an album containing all my old war horses and putting out a songbook at the same time. |
| I'm trying to have everything that I put into the world be something that makes a difference in the way I want to make a difference. |
| Songwriting is the most terrifying thing to me, because you are really laying your heart out there. |
| I fought for years and spent a fortune fighting and never got anywhere. |
| In the music industry, we value large success. I realized that while I would like that, that it's not what my writing is about. And if I start making it about that, it becomes impure. |
| I write and direct the Duke University Children's Hospital Benefit every year. |
| Corn ethanol can help in the short term, but it has serious limitations, and none of this is going to work if we don't dramatically improve the efficiency of our cars and trucks. |
| When I got to Broadway, I conducted five Broadway shows. |
| I've been doing my big theater projects, which take years, and writing a song here and there. |
| I have been writing since I was about 20, and at first I wrote in secret and never showed anybody. I was very concerned about making a living, so I conducted. |
| As time goes by, I realize that I do trust the wind. And I often write my songs for myself. |
| It sometimes feels like I'm not doing anything. |
