The Tonys ignored West Side Story. The Tonys ignored Gypsy. It's a kind of public humiliation.

I'm sure many writers have these strange, tiny little habits.

The last collaborator is your audience ... when the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you've written. Things that seem to work well -- work in a sense of carry the story forward and be integral to the piece -- suddenly become a little less relevant or a little less functional or a little overlong or a little overweight or a little whatever. And so you start reshaping from an audience.

Sometimes colleagues in performance are absolutely astonishing.

Art is craft, not inspiration.

Everyone would like to be on Broadway, cause if a show works, you make a great deal of money and it allows you to write other shows.

Take a play that you like but you think is flawed, and see if you can improve it and turn it into a musical. [...] Then make up your own story.