I wrote poetry before I wrote songs, and T.S. Eliot was my inspiration. I love his honesty and try to bring that to my own songwriting.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
As far as songwriting, my inspirations came from love, life and death, and viewing other people's situations.
I've always been a fan of poetry. I grew up with Lawrence Ferlinghetti and the Beat poets. I really followed that stuff for a while. I just love the way people threw words around like they were painting.
I've always written. When I was in school, the only teacher who ever liked me was my creative writing teacher. I used to enter poetry competitions, and I don't think I ever lost one. So I had the idea for a while of being some kind of poet.
I made myself into a poet because it was the first thing I really loved. It was an act of will.
I've written poetry since I was a kid. As the years went on, I got into writing stories and screenplays, but I always, always kept up with poetry as well.
I wrote a lot of poetry when I was a teenager - mostly desperate love poetry!
My songwriting is so influenced by orchestrated music, dramatic, super glam rock-y stuff. Two of my biggest influences in songwriting were Elton John and Freddie Mercury.
I started out as a poet. I've always been a poet since I was 7 or 8. And so I feel myself to be fundamentally a poet who got into writing novels.
I have always written poetry but I have never applied it to songwriting.
I've always written poetry and lyrics. My first husband, who was a musician, we wrote a bunch of songs together.