“I had girlfriends who really irritated me by their devotion to the Bea...” — Leonard Cohen Quote

I had girlfriends who really irritated me by their devotion to the Beatles. I didn't begrudge them their interest, and there were songs like 'Hey Jude' that I could appreciate. But they didn't seem to be essential to the kind of nourishment that I craved.

My reputation as a ladies' man was a joke. It caused me to laugh bitterly through the 10,000 nights I spent alone.

Women stand for the objective world for a man. They stand for the thing that you're not and that's what you always reach for in a song.

There's always a group of songs that I'm working at. Some of them are 10 years old, and some of them are just a few weeks old. I'm always trying to adjust these songs to some position where I can bring them to completion.

As a player you appreciate a manager who can maybe compromise a bit in his own ways for the good of the team.

That is the great thing about Hawaii. We're so culturally diverse and we inner-marry and appreciate each other's cultures.

I'm a traditionalist with suits. It doesn't need extra pockets, and I don't want headphone jacks in my jacket. I appreciate designers who do different things, but for me, the most basic version of that item is what I want.

As a songwriter, you respect and appreciate the writings of other people, and I often get asked, are there songs out there I wish I'd written? Yes. There's many of them!