Quotes from Jimmy Webb

Particularly in my early days, I did very little rewriting.

The creative processes are so mysterious.

As I've grown - dare I say it - older, I had hopes of indulging my dreams of being a sailor.

Someone left the cake out in the rain, and, I don't think that I can take it, 'Cause it took so long to bake it. And I'll never have that recipe again.

The new music is] building off something that wasn't very good in the first place. Back before the singer/songwriter, a very competent musician did the music, and a very competent lyricist did the words. But everybody does both now, so you've got a lot of mediocrity.

There's a point where one finds one's own voice and that's when it really starts to matter. The things that inspire me as a thirty-seven-year-old are very different from what inspired me as a twenty-year-old.

When I started out, I was absolutely awful, I had no voice, I didn't have a lot of stage presence and most of the interpretive intensity that I brought to the experience was actually terror.

I rode all around Hollywood listening to Donna Summer, looking out the window - all by myself - just going, 'I'm number one!' It's a pretty extraordinary feeling.

You reach a certain point in your life where they things you do and say do make a difference.

As I've grown - dare I say it - older, I had hopes of indulging my dreams of being a sailor.

I like words. I like the way they clash around together and bang up against each other, especially in songs.

It's very hard for me to think about my songs and attribute some significance to them.

The people who are making money are the ones who are writing and singing their own songs.

When we go somewhere in New York, I'm known as Mr. Savini.

I think it's prima facie evidence for the existence of God because for me to grow up and actually end up working with Glen Campbell is almost unbelievable.

I've been fortunate that when Frank Sinatra was in concert, he would say, 'Here's a song by a wonderful young songwriter, Jimmy Webb,' and I'd be in the front row and stand up. That gets people talking about you.

What has worked before is never as good as something that has never been tried before, even if it doesn't work.

I believe strongly in inspiration, inspiration literally meaning 'full of the spirit.' I do believe that it comes to you.