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Barry Mann [1939-0] American

Rank: 103
Musician, Songwriter

Barry Mann is an American songwriter, and part of a successful songwriting partnership with his wife, Cynthia Weil.
He has written or co-written 53 hits in the UK and 98 in the US.

Amazing, Architecture, Fear, Positive

Quote	Tags	Rank
There's so much fear involved in trying to do something you don't know how to do that drugs and alcohol can become a big part of your life if you have an addictive personality or are very unsure, which most songwriters are.	Fear	101
It's amazing how a competitive nature can turn a negative into something positive.	Amazing, Positive	102
If I waited for inspiration every time I sat down to write a song I probably would be a plumber today.		103
I think if one wants to be in a continual state of insanity one should stay married to that writing partner.		104
You're going to have more rejection than acceptance.		105
I know at the beginning of our careers, my wife and I were gut wrenchingly competitive.		106
Probably most successful songwriters have an innate songwriting ability.		107
It's very hard to teach someone how to write a song if to begin with there's no creative crop to harvest.		108
One other thing, if it's possible, as songwriters, you should also develop yourself as record producers.		109
We lived, ate, and breathed pop songs.		110
If we were the team that won out, then life was good and we felt that we were worth something.		111
If we didn't get the record, we didn't exist.		112
We became the songs we wrote.		113
I think that most writers who wait until they're inspired to write are just waiting for the fear to subside.		114
You have certain writing tools but generally creating something from nothing makes one quite mad and Cynthia and I are quite mad you know.		115
A guitar riff played on a piano doesn't come close to the purity of it being played on a guitar but I faked it enough to get by.		116
I get a different kind of lyric from someone else that might make me go in a different musical direction.		117
Cynthia's lyrics always expressed the feelings people felt but they couldn't express themselves.		118
I've written songs sober and I've written songs high.		119
The real danger of writing a great song when you're on something is that it might get you thinking that the only way to repeat that is by only writing when you're high.		120
I quit college. I was studying architecture for about a year.	Architecture	121
I also used to work in the Catskill Mountains as a bus boy, and I performed in talent shows.		122
We've written something like 900 songs in all.		123
I looked through our catalog year by year, and I saw that there were pockets of time when we wrote some terrific songs. Then all of a sudden, we'd go for another two or three months and there weren't great songs.		124
You have to be very brave in that first writing session.		125
It's very important, at least for me and for Cynthia, to get outside input.		126
You can get stale writing with each other for a while.		201
You've got to really be able to accept the rejection.		202

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