I grew up at the piano, and I longed to write musicals.

After I won the Pulitzer, there was this sense of, 'OK, that's enough for you. Now go away.' What I wanted was to keep writing, keep working. But no one would produce anything of mine they didn't think would be as big as ''night, Mother.'

Success is always something that you have to recover from.

Art is how a culture records its life, how it poses questions for the next generation and how it will be remembered.

Jesus was a suicide, if you ask me.

People listen to music with cavemen ears: Is it a bird song or the call of a lion? The audience at a musical is dancing in their hearts.

The theater is a communal event, like church. The playwright constructs a mass to be performed for a lot of people. She writes a prayer, which is really just the longings of one heart.