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All we do as songwriters is rewrite the songs that have impressed us till we find our own voice. It's part of learning the craft.

You rarely find someone who sings really well and who produces really well; it's a problem, and I just think it's a missing link in the music scene.

We worked very hard to make the lyrics suit the music. I can't, like Elton John, for example, compose by lyrics. Elton has a great talent for that. Whatever you give him, including your questions, he composes in half an hour and makes a great song out of it.

We human beings are tuned such that we crave great melody and great lyrics. And if somebody writes a great song, it's timeless that we as humans are going to feel something for that and there's going to be a real appreciation.

But the greatest thing about music is putting it out there for people to figure out. You want the listener to find the song on their own. If you give too much away, it takes away from the imagination.

Singers, like Frank Sinatra and myself, we interpret the songs that we like. Not unlike a Shakespearean actor that goes back to the greatest words ever written, we go back to the greatest songs and bring about my interpretation of them.

That's the thing: There are so many art songs in jazz. It's a much more rich experience for the singer than people think.

I work hard at that, but the fact that there are a lot of good songs means there are also a lot of really bad songs I've written that you never hear.

I find so many songwriters today are missing an element... either the production is amazing but the songs aren't, or it's the other way around.