"One thing that she really taught me a lot was about the importance of being conscious of spirit on a session, as far as the climate of what is going on in the room. And learning how to say things at the right time. It would come down to two basic categories --- timing and spirit.
"I think that early on, one of my difficulties was that I had sort of a very typical male way of approaching things in a problem-solver mindset… Many times, that observation would go straight from my mind to my mouth and I would definitely say, “Here’s where the problems are.” Joni was forcefully clear about saying you have to let the germ of enthusiasm and high-spirited joy of creating be, and you have to feed that. To go straight to what’s wrong with something can be really spirit-busting. So I gradually kind of learned this abstruse concept of knowing when and how to say things to artists and musicians. It so profoundly affects what you get out of people and how things come together.”
Larry Klein, music producer
interview by Bill Demain
for Performing Songwriter Magazine
March/April 2003