David Friedman

“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 don't like to produce albums. I hate producing albums, as a matter of fact, because I'm an obsessed mixer and I can't leave it alone.”

“I write and direct the Duke University Children's Hospital Benefit every year.”

“As time goes by, I realize that I do trust the wind. And I often write my songs for myself.”

“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.”

“My career keeps shifting; I keep doing the next thing and it keeps growing.”

“It's an interesting line that I walk. The AIDS crisis has done a lot for my songs and made them proliferate, and my songs have contributed a lot to that cause as well.”

“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.”

“I have a musical called Goodbye and Good Luck, based on a Grace Paley short story. I also have King Island Christmas, and there are 20 different productions of it this year.”

“I think of my songs as there to be something to move people emotionally.”

“I was talking to my spiritual advisor. I got a letter from somebody who said that they were about to kill themselves, but they listened to a song of mine and it saved their lives.”

“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've written several deeply personal songs this year, which I really love. Some of them came out of intense sadness. This has been an extremely difficult year for me.”

“My first career was as a coach and a teacher.”

“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 have long held that there are two fundamental views of children: That they are pets who can talk, or that they are small people who do not yet know very much. The wrong one is winning.”

“I fought for years and spent a fortune fighting and never got anywhere.”

“As a person, I'm not that hopeful, but somehow the hopeful part of me reveals itself through my songs.”

“I publish my own music. I'm creating my own songbook. It works that way for me; I'm very independent.”

“I'm not totally altruistic. I've always had great career ambitions. But it has to come out in an organic way. If you push yourself out beyond where you are supposed to be, there's this pressure.”