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Wit & Attitude Quote by Art Garfunkel

"Paul's the writer. Yeah, I wrote a little of that stuff, but that's just technically true. In spirit, and in essence of the truth, it doesn't matter. So I don't know, maybe I'm being foolish for not being technical. Yeah, I wrote a certain portion of the things"

About this Quote

Garfunkel is doing that slippery kind of honesty celebrities learn to perfect: confess enough to sound transparent, then retreat into a fog where accountability can’t quite land. On paper, he admits he “wrote a little,” but he immediately quarantines that admission as “just technically true,” a phrase that performs humility while quietly asking you not to take the ledger too seriously. The move is emotionally legible: he wants credit without provoking a feud, and he wants peace without feeling erased.

The key tell is the pivot from facts to “spirit” and “essence.” That’s not just philosophical; it’s strategic. In the Simon & Garfunkel mythology, Paul Simon is the auteur, the engine, the guy whose name anchors the songwriting canon. Garfunkel’s cultural role is different: interpreter, voice, halo. By conceding the official narrative, he preserves the brand story audiences already believe. Yet the repetition - “Yeah… Yeah…” - and the self-undercutting (“maybe I’m being foolish”) reveal a bruise. He’s negotiating the indignity of being reduced to “just the singer” in an era that treats authorship as the only real form of artistic power.

It also reads like a preemptive defense against pedantry: don’t come at me with credits and percentages, he suggests, because the emotional truth of the partnership can’t be itemized. That’s noble, and a little convenient. The subtext is a man trying to keep the duo’s romance intact while admitting the asymmetry that ended it.

Quote Details

TopicWriting
Source
Later attribution: The Paul Simon Companion (Stacey Luftig, 1997) modern compilationISBN: 9780711967205 · ID: 20ZOqI5gax8C
Text match: 85.42%   Provider: Google Books
Evidence:
... Paul's the writer . Yeah , I wrote a little of that stuff , but that's just technically true . In spirit , and in essence of the truth , it doesn't matter . So I don't know , maybe I'm being foolish for not being technical . Yeah , I ...
Other candidates (1)
Song: "A CLOSED LETTER TO MYSELF ABOUT THIEVERY, HECKLING AND RAPE JOKES" by Patton Oswalt
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Garfunkel, Art. (2026, February 15). Paul's the writer. Yeah, I wrote a little of that stuff, but that's just technically true. In spirit, and in essence of the truth, it doesn't matter. So I don't know, maybe I'm being foolish for not being technical. Yeah, I wrote a certain portion of the things. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/pauls-the-writer-yeah-i-wrote-a-little-of-that-36957/

Chicago Style
Garfunkel, Art. "Paul's the writer. Yeah, I wrote a little of that stuff, but that's just technically true. In spirit, and in essence of the truth, it doesn't matter. So I don't know, maybe I'm being foolish for not being technical. Yeah, I wrote a certain portion of the things." FixQuotes. February 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/pauls-the-writer-yeah-i-wrote-a-little-of-that-36957/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Paul's the writer. Yeah, I wrote a little of that stuff, but that's just technically true. In spirit, and in essence of the truth, it doesn't matter. So I don't know, maybe I'm being foolish for not being technical. Yeah, I wrote a certain portion of the things." FixQuotes, 15 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/pauls-the-writer-yeah-i-wrote-a-little-of-that-36957/. Accessed 8 Mar. 2026.

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About the Author

Art Garfunkel

Art Garfunkel (born November 5, 1941) is a Musician from USA.

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