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.

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.

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.

The perfect expression of receiving a lifetime award is to be working when they're handing it out.

There is no life without change. The real tragedy is that we are always fearful of change and resist it vehemently.

To gain significance, you must first realise that you are insignificant.

Your personal brand must exude who you are, what you stand for, specifies your target market, what value you intend to add to them and the unique offering through which you will do that.

It is possible to become world-class, enter the top 5% of performers in the world, in almost any subject within 6-12 months, or even 6-12 weeks.

We are not passive exhibitors of visual or auditory or tactile images. We have selves. We have a Me that is automatically present in our minds right now.

"It's nothing," returned Mrs Chick. "It's merely change of weather. We must expect change."

When I was little in Spokane, Washington I drew all the time... and my father would bring paper home... and I mostly drew browning automatic water-cooled sub-machine guns... that was my favorite.

Imaginary pains are by far the most real we suffer, since we feel a constant need for them and invent them because there is no way of doing without them.

The best way to leave a legacy is to believe, teach, defend, and promote what is true.

I'm not a feminist, but I just think it's a really cool process working with a woman as a director.