Perpetual anticipation is good for the soul but it's bad for the heart.

In the Rodgers and Hammerstein generation, popular hits came out of shows and movies.

I get some flak for and some resistance from colleagues for because I'm interested in storytelling. I mean what I like about songwriting is songs used to tell a story.

If people have split views about your work, I think it's flattering. I'd rather have them feel something about it than dismiss it.

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.

It should be interesting to see two entirely different ways to treat a story, geared for two entirely different kinds of audience.

They all deserve to die. Even you, Mrs. Lovett Even I. Because the lives of the wicked should be made brief For the rest of us death would be relief.