I didn't want much. I wanted much more. In fact, I wanted everything.

I think writing for a world one has invented can be infinitely more interesting than writing for the world we've all inherited.

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

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.

I type even faster than I talk. I'm very proud of that. I type so fast. And I have to because the characters are living in real time and I've got to keep up with them. It's a miracle they even give me a royalty.

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

I was tired of my lady, we'd been together too long, like a worn-out recording of a favorite song.