Lin-Manuel Miranda Quotes

I remind myself Vincent van Gogh died without having sold a single painting. Like, art is not measured by the trappings that people attached to it. It's the thing itself, and so, as you know, it's been a dream of mine to write songs for Disney, and so, it's really exciting to finally hear. It's two and a half years.

I loved musicals. I loved being in the school play and being lucky enough to get parts in the school play. But they always took place in some other time and place.

These New York City streets get colder, I shoulder every burden every disadvantage I've learned to manage. I don't have a gun to brandish. I walk these streets famished.

I still look at that water, and I look at Moana's hair, and I'm just like, "How is this even happening?" It's such an incredible mix of technical mastery and wizardry. It's really incredible. It's layers and layers and layers. It's not unlike building a musical. It's really pretty cool.

The music you love when you're a teenager is always going to be the most important to you.

When you're dealing with a constant rhythm, no matter how great your lyrics are, if you don't switch it up, people's heads are going to start bobbing. And they're going to stop listening to what you're saying, so consistently keep the ear fresh and keep the audience surprised.

I got the job [in Moana project] about six months before we started rehearsals. No, seven and a half months before we started at the Public, and so, it's been my ocean of calm throughout the Hamilton phenomenon.

The problem is I got a lot of brains but no polish.

The theater should always be a safe space.

I'm past patiently waitin,' I'm passionately smashin' every expectation, every action's an act of creation.

I think I learned more about writing scores for Broadway by making mix tapes in the '90s than I did in college. You're learning about rise and fall and energy and tempo shifts. You're showing off your taste and your references. You're trying to be witty by - through placement of music you didn't write.

I'm not going to hang out with celebrities, I'm not going to parties. I have two songs due for Moana next week, and I'm going to go and spend some time with Maui and Moana in the ocean, in my mind.

We sort of quickly realized every rhythm, Opetaia [Foa'i] takes the lead.

Everyday has the potential to be the greatest day of your life

I just remembered when I was an adolescent girl wanting to leave my island and find my calling.

My rhymes are gonna kill, so I suggest you write your will and leave your [expletive] to me.

I came up with the "We are explorers," with sort of a counter-melody to [Opetaia Foa'i] melody. And so, it happened so organically, that it really, to me, is the most emblematic of our collaboration.

I'm the music guy, I get to wear the music hat, but being able to be that guy in the room is a thrill at this level and caliber.

I was one of several songwriters I think interviewed [for Moana]. I'm a huge fan of Disney animated movies, and I've always wanted to write an animated score since I was a little kid.

Lamplighters are the guys who manually turned on all the street lamps in London and turned them off. That was the gig in the 1930s in London.

You know, you're doing the same show every day, and your inspiration, you have to look no further than the fact that you know people travel across the country to see you. In a lot of cases, this is that audience's only chance to see the thing, and so, that's what gets you up in the morning, and that's what gets you giving your best performance on stage, is the awareness that this audience is ready for it, and here to have an experience, and so in turn are you.

I went to a school where everyone was smarter than me. And I'm not blowin' smoke, I, my, I was surrounded by genius, genius kids. What's interesting about growing up in a culture like that is you go, "All right, I gotta figure out what my thing is. Because I'm not smarter than these kids. I'm not funnier than half of them, so I better figure out what it is I wanna do and work really hard at that because intellectually I'm treading water to, to be here."

I have two wonderful, supportive and very practical parents who were like, you're really talented and really creative. You should be a lawyer because there's a safe path there. And I knew that I was never going to be a lawyer. And I knew that I wanted to make movies, and I wanted to write shows.

[Opetaia Foa'i] brought in the melody and the lyrics, but the lyrics were in Tokelauan, and so, we talked about what it could mean and whether this could be the ancestor song. So, I started writing English lyrics to sort of the same melody.

It's hard to pick. I mean, I think the one that is most emblematic of the collaboration that occurred is "We Know The Way." That's the first song we wrote for the movie [Moana]. We actually got it written that weekend in New Zealand, so we're all in New Zealand, we're all absorbing this culture, and Opetaia [Foa'i] brought it in.

You can't control the success or failure of a thing you work on. You can only control the thing you work on.

I think I started writing because no one had ever told me you can write about the things you know in a musical. They don't have to come from some far off place.

No one wants to hear me crooning a ballad.

I think you balance the things you've been dying to do all your life. And the opportunities that come along, that you didn't maybe think of, that are so amazing, that you'd kick yourself if you didn't try to be a part of them.

I liked writing the negative ads more than - because it's more minor chords.

I got to holler just to be heard.

People who don't like musicals like, 'why are they singing? Why aren't they just talking? If you make the lyric feel really conversational, it's much easier for them to bridge that gap.

If you think in terms of topping, you're in the wrong business. You can't think that way.

I have been working on this movie [Moana] since before Hamilton happened.

I wouldn't give a performer something I couldn't deliver myself.

I think one of the things that makes theater special is first of all, it's one of the last places you put your phone away. And second of all, it's one of the last places where we all have a common experience together.

With every word, I drop knowledge. I'm a diamond in the rough, a shiny piece of coal trying to reach my goal.

My power of speech, unimpeachable. Only 19 but my mind is older.

The distance between where I am and where I want to be seems impossibly large.

I had friends who only listened to hip-hop. I had friends who only listened to musicals, and I stood proudly in the middle.

Disney's really incredible on story.

I felt so nourished by the process of making [Moana], of you're always engaged with other artists from different disciplines, and it's about bringing your art form to the table. It's so many art forms mashed together.

With every word, I drop knowledge.

My kid gets me out of bed in the morning.

Don't be shocked when your history book mentions me.

I am the epitome of coolness.

If you're thinking about the idea in the shower. If you're thinking about the idea while you're walking your dog, there's probably something to it.

I want as many people to see the show [Hamilton] in its musical theater form as possible before it's translated, and whether it's a good act of translation or a bad act of translation, it's a leap, and very few stage shows manage the leap successfully.