How Paul Simon Writes a Song

 According to Paul Simon, writing a hit song is easy when you’re young, because “you don’t know anything.” As a songwriter ages and learns more about the world, writing simple statements becomes difficult. But Simon is still writing unique songs at an age when many rest on their laurels. At the 2013 New Yorker Festival, Simon spoke with The New Yorker’s poetry editor, Paul Muldoon, about his early musical influences, and walked line by line through the process of writing “Graceland” and “Darling Lorraine.”