Lin-Manuel Miranda Quotes

Everyday has the potential to be the greatest day of your life

I'm past patiently waitin,' I'm passionately smashin' every expectation, every action's an act of creation.

I try to let my decisions be guided not by what I think will succeed or fail, but what I'm going to learn from that process.

When I get called in for stuff for Hollywood, I get to be the best friend of the Caucasian leadIf I want to play the main guy, I have found, I have to write it.

You can't control the success or failure of a thing you work on. You can only control the thing you work on.

The distance between where I am and where I want to be seems impossibly large.

Ed Koch once said that New York City is where immigrants come to audition for America. That's what happened to my parents; that's what happened to me.

If you're thinking about the idea in the shower. If you're thinking about the idea while you're walking your dog, there's probably something to it.

I think if you want to make a recipe for making a writer, have them feel a little out of place everywhere, have them be an observer kind of all the time. And that's a great way to make a writer.

I'm not going to hang out with celebrities, I'm not going to parties. I have two songs due for Moana next week, and I'm going to go and spend some time with Maui and Moana in the ocean, in my mind.

I'm just like my country, I'm young, scrappy and hungry, and I'm not throwing away my shot.

With every word, I drop knowledge. I'm a diamond in the rough, a shiny piece of coal trying to reach my goal.

Don't be shocked when your history book mentions me.

I just remembered when I was an adolescent girl wanting to leave my island and find my calling.

I'm the music guy, I get to wear the music hat, but being able to be that guy in the room is a thrill at this level and caliber.

The theater should always be a safe space.

I wouldn't give a performer something I couldn't deliver myself.

I got to fall in love. I got to win a war. I got to write words that inspired a nation.

The music you love when you're a teenager is always going to be the most important to you.

I think I started writing because no one had ever told me you can write about the things you know in a musical. They don't have to come from some far off place.

I'm a diamond in the rough, a shiny piece of coal trying to reach my goal.

I am the epitome of coolness.

If you know the voice you're writing for it's such a shortcut. It's such a catalyst to creating the kind of energy you want.

I liked writing the negative ads more than - because it's more minor chords.

The reason I make that distinction cassette before CD is you have to listen to it in the order in which I've curated it for you. You know, side A to side B is our act break.

I will lay down my life if it sets us free.

I feel like style is like accent. You don't hear it on yourself, and then everyone's like, man, you got a strong accent.

It was a real dream come true just to get the job [in Moana], and yeah, and we sort of got right to work.

I was one of several songwriters I think interviewed [for Moana]. I'm a huge fan of Disney animated movies, and I've always wanted to write an animated score since I was a little kid.

My sister is as responsible for anyone for giving me good taste in music.

The fact that I'm a performer helps me enormously as a lyricist.

I have been working on this movie [Moana] since before Hamilton happened.

It's an enormous relief to go to work and be an actor and not be worried about writing.

Well, hello. My name is Lin. But if you're dyslexic, call me Nil.

Once George Washington said, "I have to step down the so the country can move on."

The problem is I got a lot of brains but no polish.

Lamplighters are the guys who manually turned on all the street lamps in London and turned them off. That was the gig in the 1930s in London.

My rhymes are gonna kill, so I suggest you write your will and leave your [expletive] to me.

I am not throwing away my shot.

I came up with the "We are explorers," with sort of a counter-melody to [Opetaia Foa'i] melody. And so, it happened so organically, that it really, to me, is the most emblematic of our collaboration.

We sort of quickly realized every rhythm, Opetaia [Foa'i] takes the lead.

Disney's really incredible on story.

My kid gets me out of bed in the morning.

I've had a little Hollywood experience, and there's nothing like the Disney story experience.

I loved musicals. I loved being in the school play and being lucky enough to get parts in the school play. But they always took place in some other time and place.

I'm not trying to make something that is difficult to perform every night. It needs to proceed at the speed of that character's thought because that's the only way it's actable.

I know the action in the street is excitin' But Jesus, between all the bleedin’ ‘n fightin’ I’ve been readin’ ‘n writin’.

These New York City streets get colder, I shoulder every burden every disadvantage I've learned to manage. I don't have a gun to brandish. I walk these streets famished.

If you think in terms of topping, you're in the wrong business. You can't think that way.

I'm just like my country. I'm young, scrappy and hungry.