Humans beings are chimpanzees. Monkeys already play music.
And as far as songwriting goes, it always helps to suffer. If that sounds cliche it's because cliches are rooted in fact.
It's important to extend the boundries of your experience by exposing yourself to emotional, physical and environmental extremes; allowing you a wider emotional pallet to write from.
Writing good music may be conditional on the idea that one has to let go of the idea of writing "good music". Maybe it's more important to live a life worth living? Maybe songwriting falls into place after that? I think it's important not to flounder in your ideals, and better to know where you stand and why you stand there: Either will affect and be expressed by the music.
Practice helps, but it's overrated: Don't go overboard or you might turn yourself into a jukebox. Johnny Greenwood (radiohead) said in an interview that the only time Tom Waits picks up a guitar is to write a song, and that he (Greenwood) has adopted a like philosophy. No one wants to be the best at practicing.
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