Artistic self-indulgence is the mark of an amateur. The temptation to make scenes, to appear late, to call in sick, not to meet deadlines, not to be organized, is at heart a sign of your own insecurity and at worst the sign of an amateur.

I've never been able to understand where great artists come from.

I don't think there's a defined contemporary American musical, do you?

I really wish people - maybe it's naive - wish people had priorities and were willing to be artistic patrons.

Most of the big money people don't know what would interest an audience if you did it. They only know what interested the audience last time.

The idea is to work and to experiment. Some things will be creatively successful, some things will succeed at the box office, and some things will only - which is the biggest only - teach you things that see the future. And they're probably as valuable as any of your successes.

What's missing in the musical theater is producers willing to nurture new work, raise the money and put it on.