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.

If I cannot fly, let me sing.

Success is like failure, It's how you perceive it, It's what you do with it, not how you achieve it.

The only reason to write is from love.

Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.

Any moment, big or small, Is a moment, after all. Seize the moment, skies may fall Any moment.

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

I love the theater as much as music, and the whole idea of getting across to an audience and making them laugh, making them cry - just making them feel - is paramount to me.

Musicals are, by nature, theatrical, meaning poetic, meaning having to move the audience's imagination and create a suspension of disbelief, by which I mean there's no fourth wall.

Swing your razor wide! Sweeney, hold it to the skies!

All the best performers bring to their role something more, something different than what the author put on paper. That's what makes theatre live. That's why it persists.

All beautiful women are murderers. You've probably heard it said before.

...everything defiled and degraded. What cannot man live through! Man is a creature that can get accustomed to anything, and I think that is the best definition of him.

I really feel like the gift is also the curse. It's always half-and-half. Whatever brings you the most joy will also probably bring you the most pain. Always a price to pay

This [fundamentalism] is not religion. It is obscenity. These are lies, the criminal use of religious power to misguide people.

A truly comic, invented world must live at the same time as the world we live in.

Son of a mustard sandwich, that ends tonight!

I am rich and famous. I have a talented and gorgeous husband and two beautiful children. I could go on.

I'm over dey heads like a bulemic on a seesaw

Everyone's mind wanders, without doubt, and we always have to start over. Everyone resists or dislikes the thought of or is too tired to meditate at times, and we have to be able to begin again.

I own your pleasure," I whispered into his mouth. "I'll take it if you won't give it to me.