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I keep this crazy notebook of song ideas.

I'm writing constantly about all my crazy experiences across the world, so I have a lot of music I've already written.

I've been writing songs all along, and since moving to Nashville in the late-'80s, I'd begun writing something like 15-20 songs a year, instead of the typical three or four in previous years.

There's a whole bunch of unfinished stuff. Then I've got books of lyrics. I find it frustrating to finish a song and not be able to record it... so I don't write a million songs.

I don't really write songs anymore.

I never set out to write songs about the world around me... it just kind of came about as a result of paying more attention to things.

I continually blacken pages and scribble away, so I always have a number of songs that are half-finished.

With my gift, I can pretty much write a song out of anything.

I don't have a special place or ritual for writing songs, basically I write songs whenever an idea hits me, in my hotel room, on the road, in the plane.

Writing songs was like my ticket to the world, I think.