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I'm a songwriter; that's where it starts. I love writing with someone that shares that same feeling of accomplishment. I'll play music for my fans as long as they'll listen, but I fancy myself as a writer first.

Early in my songwriting career, when I was learning a lot about writing songs, I'd force myself to sit down until I came up with something.

I ended up writing songs and growing up in public with my songwriting. And it's a good thing for me back then: in the early '70s, there was a thing called artist development, where an artist could find his feet, find himself, find his voice. I think I made five or six albums before I sold five or six albums.

I'm not an extremely prolific writer. I don't write songs all the time.

For me, songwriting is something I have to do ritually. I don't just wait for inspiration; I try to write a little bit every day.

I don't try to write songs that will further my career. I write about things that I care about. I don't have a career as much as I'm having an adventure with a guitar. I never liked the business way of doing it. You have to follow some sort of instinct.

All I try to do is to write music that feels meaningful to me, that has commitment and passion behind it.

I'm clearly most well known for my music. Eventually, ultimately, I'll be writing books. I'm still writing articles now. I just consider myself a writer.

I was in a band at school, and almost from the day we started, I started writing songs, just because that seemed what you did.