The situation's fraught, Fraughter than I thought, With horrible, impossible possibilities!

The more restrictions you have, the easier anything is to write.

I took piano lessons when I was 6. I didn't want to go on with it. I don't remember being moved by a piece of music.

I fell into lyric writing because of music. I backed into it.

I firmly believe lyrics have to breathe and give the audience's ear a chance to understand what's going on. Particularly in the theater, where you have costume, story, acting, orchestra.

Making lyrics feel natural, sit on music in such a way that you dont feel the effort of the author, so that they shine and bubble and rise and fall, is very, very hard to do. Whereas you can sit at the piano and just play and feel youre making art.

Musicals are — particularly musicals — plays also, but musicals particularly are… the last collaborator is your audience, and so you’ve got to wait ’til the last collaborator comes in before you can complete the collaboration.