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With writing a song, I've always felt, right from the start, like I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel. I don't ever feel there's a font of ideas to fall back on.

I mean, when it gets down to it I just wanted to play the drums. The rest of it never meant that much to me.

I was left with an urge to make the guitar sound like things it shouldn't be able to sound like.

I was once making a burger for myself at my boyfriend's house and a lyric started pouring out and I had to catch it, so I ran to another room to write it down, but then the kitchen caught fire. His cabinets were charred, and he was furious. But it was worth it for a song.

Just this morning, out of a large memory for songs, and having been obsessed by them since childhood, suddenly, at the age of 84, I thought of a song I hadn't thought of in over 50 years. It came into my head unbidden.

I just get an idea and then all of a sudden I've got a song.

It feels so satisfying to hear a song I wrote come out of the radio.

I'm always imagining some sort of story behind the song, even the ones I haven't written. I'm actively engaging in playacting.

It's hard to get out of the barrel. It's slippery around the edges and people are happy to see you fall back in.