Neil Diamond

“I still need practice in enjoying the fruits of success.”

“It was a real hand-to-mouth existence in those early days - I'd have whatever dry cereal there was in the house for breakfast, 30 cents to spend on lunch and a hot dog for dinner. I did that for years. So there was definitely a hunger in me, of various kinds, to succeed.”

“I don't like all of the music to be serious and deadly.”

“The main objective in any song, the songs that I write, has always been that it reflect the way I feel, that it touch me when I'm finished with it, that it moves me, that it can take me along with it and involve me in what its saying.”

“When I need my wife or when I need companionship or someone to talk to, I need it, like, now. So my wife will have to give up whatever she's doing at that moment to tend to my needs. And, in the same way, I would tend to hers. That's not such an easy thing to do.”

“I think probably Australians have just a little more taste than most people.”

“Songwritng is what I do.”

“I've looked at photographs of myself during concerts and it sometimes looks as if I'm in a fencing move, with a guitar in my hands instead of a sword.”

“Songwriting is different from music, although I don't deny now that it would be nice to have a little more background in music theory.”

“You can't plan to write a great song. It just happens to you. It drops in your lap. It's the same thing with a woman.”

“Song Sung Blue took a lot of compressing and refining, and it has one of my favorite lyrics.”

“I'm lucky. Hard work is the key, but luck plays a part.”

“Chelsea Morning is a great Joni Mitchell song and I guess I'm partial to her lyrics because they show me a slightly different perspective on life.”