A lot of my early career, I wrote story songs that had narratives, that had plots.

Every songwriter lives to have at least one song that a cab driver who asks 'You write anything I know?' will recognize.

Kipling said that Success and Failure are both imposters, and we should all listen to Kipling, if only because none of us are likely to know anybody else named Rudyard. But having been bitten in my life by the jaws of both victory and defeat, I must rush to add that success is to failure as butter pecan ice cream is to death.

In all my years of performing, no audience member has ever actually assaulted me. I consider this to be the singular triumph of my performing career.

I always try to keep in mind that while the characters in a farce may find themselves in outrageous dilemmas, and may behave in a way that the audience finds amusing, the characters themselves don't have the consolation of knowing they're in a comedy.

As much as the mystery element is all a lot of fun, when you do go to 'Edwin Drood,' you're going to a theatre to see a show about going to a theatre and what that relationship between actors and audiences has been for years.

I first had the thought about making a musical of 'Edwin Drood' as far back as 1971.