“And, it’s also about spurring each other on to doing really great, hard work.”

I’ve been very fortunate as a composer to be involved with projects that have really propelled my scores forward. I’m very proud of it.

Everything else is relative levels of hell.

The best parts about writing a show are [its] first, second and 10th anniversaries.

If you write enough musicals you pretty much have a sense of where they should go.

Having a tradition is a great thing to work within, and maybe today [it] is the only way to really land musically dramatic work.

And all these people really wanted to reinvigorate the animated musical, so they came to Howard Ashman and me. That was my entry into Disney.

So you have to do a lot of things in order for things to move forward.

So there are more songs on the stage because the songs are kind of the close up.

Whether it’s animated, whether it’s live-action, whether it’s Broadway, whether it’s television, a musical is a musical is a musical.

I don’t write songs for myself anymore. I only write songs on assignment.

What brought me to Disney was the new regime, which is now the old regime, came over with Michael Eisner, Frank Wells, Jeffrey Katzenberg.

I’ve always juggled a lot of projects because at least half the projects you do get shelved.

It’s purely a business, but it is still so important to me emotionally.

So, pretty much you approach the songs in pretty much the same way.

Collaboration is being open to each other’s ideas and benefiting from each other’s perspectives in an open way.

Collaboration is all about rewriting and rewriting and rewriting and helping each other to constantly improve a piece.

My wound is geography. It is also my anchorage, my port of call.

The looks, the stares, the giggles . . . I wanted to show everybody that I could do better and also that I could read.

I grew up being an artist, but also rock-climbing and traveling the world and teaching my kids.

It is true that we are made of dust. And the world is also made of dust. But the dust has motes rising.

The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that’s also a hypocrite!

For where there is love of man, there is also love of the art.

The 31th of May, I perceived in the same water more of those Animals, as also some that were somewhat bigger.

You can be heartbroken about a relationship but also, from it, realize you are you, and you’re okay with who you are or where you came from.