I Think The Legacy We Leave Is

I Would Rather Have People Be Even Cynical About Me Than To Feed The Negative Vibe.

I Write A Lot And I Will Have Some Originals On The Record. I Think It Is A Mistake For An Artist Like Me To Think I Am A Better Writer Than Cole Porter. I Think It Is Important To Realize What My Strengths Are. I Do Like To Write And I'm Not Shabby But I Don't Think I'm The Most Brilliant Writer. I Think It Would Be A Shame And Sort So Egotistical To Say I Don't Need These Wonderful Writers. These Men Created Works Of Art And Wrote Hundreds Of Beautiful Songs. It Would Be A Mistake For Me To Say At This Point In My Career That I Am So Good.

I Get To Study And I Got To Mimic And What I Basically Did Was I Stole From Every Person That I Could Steal From. I Was An Imitator. That's What I Was. It Was Years Before I Could Take All Of These Things That I Loved About All Of These Different Artists And Put Them Together And Find My Voice.

I Realize I Have Made A Lot Of Mistakes And Done Things Wrong. I've Done Things I Wish I Could Have Done In Another Way. I Didn't Come In With The Same Kind Of Desperation That I May Have Had On The First Or Second Record. I Didn't Come In Thinking, 'oh God, Please. I Hope This Does Well Because I Have Nothing Else And I Worked So Hard At This.'

Look At Neil Diamond. Was He The Cool Guy? No, He Was The Housewives' Guy. He Didn't Try To Be What He Wasn't. He Just Did What He Did - Made Great Music, Was A Good Entertainer, Nice-enough Guy.