As the book writer for one big smash and one big smelly flop, I always wondered if anyone knows just what goes into making a great musical. When a show is a hit, the critics trip over themselves not knowing who to laud and applaud the loudest. It's that marvelous score, those urbane lyrics, that irreplaceable star. But only when a show is a flop, does anyone notice the book writer. And then it's always our fault.

Of course people are afraid. But honestly facing that fear, seeing it for what it is, is the only way of putting it to rest.

How time files when you's doin' all the talking.

You know, I always got offered other stuff. Not the romantic leads, obviously. But very often it's a role that's underwritten, where the character has no personality at all. And they need a character actor who can fill it in.

Nothing binds a people to their leader like a common enemy. Voters don’t change governments during war.

Anyone with a smart phone is a potential eyewitness cameraman capturing and transmitting stories at speeds that turn Reuter photos and traditional reporting into, well... yesterday’s news.

As soon as I started writing, other writers stopped wanting me acting in their shows - maybe they thought I was going to rewrite them.