Oscar Hammerstein was a surrogate father during all those many days, and weeks and months when I didn’t see my own father.
Writing is a form of mischief.
Over a period of time it’s been driven home to me that I’m not going to be the most popular writer in the world, so I’m always happy when anything in any way is accepted.
Am I not sensitive, clever, well-mannered, considerate, passionate, charming, as kind as I’m handsome and heir to a throne?
If you told me to write a love song tonight, I’d have a lot of trouble. But if you tell me to write a love song about a girl with a red dress who goes into a bar and is on her fifth martini and is falling off her chair, that’s a lot easier, and it makes me free to say anything I want.
The truth is that I don’t like rehearsals. I get embarrassed hearing my own work. I assume that the cast is embarrassed to sing the stuff.
So many good songs get written fast, because you know exactly what has to work.
My personal life and my artistic life do not interfere with each other.
I do not dwell on dreams I know how soon a dream becomes an expectation How can I have expectations? Look at me, No, Captain, Look at me, Look at me!
No one has ever known me as clearly as you. No one has ever shown me that love allows everything. Not pretty or safe or easy but something I never knew. Love within reason, that isn’t love and I learned that from you.
Generally, the best recording is the original cast, because that’s the way the piece grew: integrally, with them.
In the Rodgers and Hammerstein generation, popular hits came out of shows and movies.
Everyone I used to play with has either given up or is dead.
It’s not so hard to be married, I’ve done it three or four times.
The dumbing down of the country reflects itself on Broadway. The shows get dumber, and the public gets used to them.
I get some flak for and some resistance from colleagues for because I’m interested in storytelling. I mean what I like about songwriting is songs used to tell a story.
I don’t write songs apart from theatrical pieces. I’m not interested in writing songs qua songs.
Musicals are so expensive to put on the stage that you have to have the backing of a corporate, you have to have Universal Studios or Disney or somebody to put in the money.
I like songs that are part of a dramatic texture, and therefore I like the scenes to be active. I wanna follow the story and that means you lean on the actors.
If I got involved with the chat rooms and Facebook and everything – I would probably never leave. That’s why I don’t do it. I literally don’t do it. At all.
I love computers. I love writing on them. I love gadgetry. The thing is: I am a slow reader. So, if I am going to get my work done, I read, like, a newspaper and that’s it. If I got into websites and the internet, I wouldn’t get any work done.