I've seen a lot of 'Show Boats,' but I've never seen the one that thoroughly satisfies me.

The musical has always been in jeopardy - until - or was in jeopardy until it was realised that it is probably the safest living theatre art form.

I don't look back. I look forward and plan new shows. That's really feeding the most important part of working in the theater.

Audiences are quite happy to be astonished, and they don't care who does that astonishing.

I have a terrible memory because I'm not interested in the past. It's done, it's done.

A star may guarantee business, but the tradeoff is a very short run.

I was there when the quote-unquote golden age of musical theater was flourishing. I met everybody who worked in theater or was famous in theater from the '40s on.

Criticism is valuable... and self-congratulatory experiences are not.

It's a terrible shame if you're born the brightest guy in your class. If you're not, then you have to hustle-and that's good.

I'm always glad to see somebody rethink something rather than reproduce something I did.

We've got to find a way to protect the process of making musical theater.

We believed in the existence in this country of a vast reading public for intelligent books at a low price and staked everything on it.

A celestial light appeared to Barrett Meeks in the sky over Central Park, four days after Barrett had been mauled, once again, by love.

Danger for danger's sake is senseless.

I love the semicolon; it's unnecessary, but graceful and sophisticated.

There is a gulf between the high value Americans put on life in theory and its cheapness in practice.

Life is a festival only to the wise. Seen from the nook and chimneyside of prudence, it wears a ragged and dangerous front.

You take me in, no questions asked. You strip away the ugliness that surrounds me. Are you an angel?

Walt Disney was my great hero.

My audience has really become a very diverse group of people. It's not just 15-year-old girls. That's kind of what allows me to write from all the different places I want to write from.

Whatever your dream is, every extra penny you have needs to be going to that.