The honest, no-holds-barred, bare-faced truth is, the I have a large ego, think I have something to say, and that other folks will be interested enough in my thoughts to pay money to hear my songs. A bit overstated perhaps, but there is a grain of truth in it. Yes, I do get something out of it, some personal satisfaction. Also, I started writing songs because of the copyright laws concerning public performance of others' copyrighted material. Also, (and here's the ego popping out again) I heard some stuff on the radio that left me feeling that I could do better than that. I also heard some stuff that left me wondering if I could do that good, too. Last, it is just plain fun, in a personally challenging sort of way to see if I can organize my thoughts in a small structure, like a song lyric.