In the theater, when people hear that you're writing a play, they want to know what it's all about, whether there's a role for them. You write it fairly quickly, and it becomes a group activity before you're really ready to have company.

My view is that musicals are love stories with great final scenes. It's just that simple. Musicals are also conflicts between two worlds. And by those criteria, 'The Color Purple' is actually exactly the kind of story that makes for a great musical. Yes, it's got hard stuff in it, but so does 'Les Miserables' and 'Phantom of the Opera.'

Family is just accident.... They don't mean to get on your nerves. They don't even mean to be your family, they just are.

When you fight something long enough, it becomes a center pole right in your life and you count on it to be there to fight with.

Write about the thing that frightens you most.

People do think that if they avoid the truth, it might change to something better before they have to hear it.

When ''night, Mother' opened, I did not know how long it would be before I would have another show on Broadway.