Lyrics have to be underwritten. That's why poets generally make poor lyric writers because the language is too rich. You get drowned in it.

Generally, the best recording is the original cast, because that's the way the piece grew: integrally, with them.

It's pleasanter to work in the country, where you can wander out among the trees. But I don't get as much work done. In the city you don't want to leave the room because there's all that chaos going on.

You have two kinds of shows on Broadway - revivals and the same kind of musicals over and over again, all spectacles. You get your tickets for 'The Lion King' a year in advance, and essentially a family comes as if to a picnic, and they pass on to their children the idea that that's what the theater is - a spectacular musical you see once a year, a stage version of a movie. It has nothing to do with theater at all. It has to do with seeing what is familiar. We live in a recycled culture.

I prefer neurotic people. I like to hear rumblings beneath the surface.

Nowadays, there are sometimes more producers than there are people in the cast, because it takes that much money to put a show on.

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.