Randy Newman

“I like the performing. And interviews, even. And the stuff that's not sitting in a room by yourself with empty paper. But I never loved writing, to tell you the truth.”

“Mostly, I don't write overtly personal stuff.”

“Learn about the world, the way it works, any kind of science and anthropology, it's really an interesting place we live in. Evolution is a really fantastic idea, even more than the idea of God I think.”

“I don't remember ever having writer's block. If I sit in there for four hours, I'll usually have something.”

“I always thought my best album was 'Trouble in Paradise.' I was the happiest with that one.”

“But if you're doing something, show up everyday, and something good might happen - it's not going to happen if you don't show up.”

“It's funny; people get so doctrinaire about music. It should be the last thing you don't have an open mind about.”

“I like Public Enemy a great deal.”

“I like the idea of taking a true classic written by a true genius and destroying it essentially! I like the idea of bringing it down to earth a bit - and even a bit lower than that.”

“My music has a high irritation factor. I've always tried to say something. Eccentric lyrics about eccentric people. Often it was a joke. But I would plead guilty on the grounds that I prefer eccentricity to the bland.”

“Most of my songs are about insensitivity of some kind.”

“It's very hard to get rich and famous at a young age and handle it well.”

“I am not overlooking any mail. I'm looking at all of it. I even wrote back to the Viagra people.”

“Thank God for the potholes on memory lane.”

“I like science - geography, meteorology, cosmology.”

“I once had dinner with Madonna and I wasn't nervous but within about a minute I found myself talking about underwear.”

“I'm pretty proud of my film music in general.”

“If we'd had another carefree 70's, I'd have been dead. It was a little too carefree, you know? I don't know how carefree they were for me, I think I was worried then, I can't remember what about.”

“I think the tax cut is ridiculous but so am I.”

“'Rednecks' always made me nervous to play, but I'm glad I wrote it and I continue to play it. It's just that the language is so rough.”