I think that most writers who wait until they're inspired to write are just waiting for the fear to subside.

- Barry Mann

The real danger of writing a great song when you're on something is that it might get you thinking that the only way to repeat that is by only writing when you're high.

- Barry Mann

I looked through our catalog year by year, and I saw that there were pockets of time when we wrote some terrific songs. Then all of a sudden, we'd go for another two or three months and there weren't great songs.

- Barry Mann

You've got to really be able to accept the rejection.

- Barry Mann

You have to be very brave in that first writing session.

- Barry Mann

You have certain writing tools but generally creating something from nothing makes one quite mad and Cynthia and I are quite mad you know.

- Barry Mann

You can get stale writing with each other for a while.

- Barry Mann

We've written something like 900 songs in all.

- Barry Mann

We lived, ate, and breathed pop songs.

- Barry Mann

We became the songs we wrote.

- Barry Mann

It's very important, at least for me and for Cynthia, to get outside input.

- Barry Mann

If we were the team that won out, then life was good and we felt that we were worth something.

- Barry Mann

If we didn't get the record, we didn't exist.

- Barry Mann

I've written songs sober and I've written songs high.

- Barry Mann

There's so much fear involved in trying to do something you don't know how to do that drugs and alcohol can become a big part of your life if you have an addictive personality or are very unsure, which most songwriters are.

- Barry Mann

I quit college. I was studying architecture for about a year.

- Barry Mann

I get a different kind of lyric from someone else that might make me go in a different musical direction.

- Barry Mann

I also used to work in the Catskill Mountains as a bus boy, and I performed in talent shows.

- Barry Mann

Cynthia's lyrics always expressed the feelings people felt but they couldn't express themselves.

- Barry Mann

A guitar riff played on a piano doesn't come close to the purity of it being played on a guitar but I faked it enough to get by.

- Barry Mann