The worst thing about Coldplay's songs is that you just can't hum them:>)

I've tended to find that my best songs seem to come mostly in a 20 minute burst of adrenaline- it's a very intense, almost spiritual experience and I honestly don't know too much about the processes at work. Conversely, the harder I have to work at a song, consciously search for lines, etc., the more the song tends to disappear up its own arse. Fortunately my quality control has tended to be good enough to prevent most of these from ever seeing the light of day, though there have been occasional exceptions.

When you're at your very best as a writer, I think you're merely a channel for something much bigger than yourself, ultimately.