Quotes by Rick Rubin

“When Neil would play and sing, it changed his relationship to the song. One feels more of a sense of authorship. By playing guitar, Neil controls the rhythm and feel of the songs. It also changes the way he sings them, and it becomes a more pure musical act.”

“Its a very stripped-down, beautiful, emotional album,”

“I dont know what makes someone hip. The goal is artist achievement and the best work we can do with no limitation.”

“The songs are classic Neil Diamond songs. Nobody else could have possibly written them. The sound of the album is very personal, intimate and honest.”

“We are not comfortable using the public Internet, although there has been a lot of good work with [virtual private network] and public-key infrastructure technology.”

“He is one of the few people who can get on a stage in an arena in front of any audience anywhere in the world and and play original songs for hours (that) everyone would be familiar with and sing along to. The list of people whose music has this power could be counted on one hand, tops.”

“It was an interesting, eye-opening experience,”

“Hes never been part of any style, and hes crossed different boundaries of pop and rock and different kinds of music at different times.”

“Early in his career, he was looked at more as a singer/songwriter, ... As time went on, he was viewed more as a cabaret artist. I missed that image of the singer/songwriter.”

“Its a tentative feel with him playing guitar, and the songs feel like they are coming from a true and honest ”

Usually when I start a new project theres a fear of the unknown; maybe its a band Ive never been in the studio with before. People are so different. Its almost like you need to go through the process, discover and unlock what it is that makes that band that band. And a lot of times they dont know it.

I dont even know what a traditional producer is or does. I feel like the job is like being a coach, building good work habits and building trust. You want to get to a point where you can say anything and talk about anything. There needs to be a real connection.