Jimmy Webb

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

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

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.

In early 1993, when I was 12, I was separated from my family as the Sierra Leone civil war, which began two years earlier, came into my life.

Well, I actually wrote her a letter a couple of days ago congratulating her. The tone I tried to convey in the letter is, look, you are a part of a great American historical process.

Rewriting isn't just about dialogue; it's the order of the scenes, how you finish a scene, how you get into a scene.