I like songs that are part of a dramatic texture, and therefore I like the scenes to be active. I wanna follow the story and that means you lean on the actors.

I didn't really want to write just lyrics, but I wanted to meet Leonard Bernstein. Music was always the first reason I was writing songs.

Anything you do, let it come from you. Then it will be new.

I've always liked puzzles, since I was a kid. I like party games, silly games. I loved chess. I enjoy jigsaw puzzles, but I'm not particularly visual.

I read to see myself in other people's lives.

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

Deciding what is to be sung and what is not to be sung is really what writing a musical is about.