The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations.
I don't like to produce albums. I hate producing albums, as a matter of fact, because I'm an obsessed mixer and I can't leave it alone.
As a person, I'm not that hopeful, but somehow the hopeful part of me reveals itself through my songs.
I'm not totally altruistic. I've always had great career ambitions. But it has to come out in an organic way. If you push yourself out beyond where you are supposed to be, there's this pressure.
I'm not comfortable singing in front of people yet. That's going to take another 100 performances.
I have a musical called Goodbye and Good Luck, based on a Grace Paley short story. I also have King Island Christmas, and there are 20 different productions of it this year.
When my writing really started to take off was when I made a decision that I would write only what I wanted to write, and if 10 people wanted to hear it, that's fine.
I wanted to produce Nancy LaMott's albums, so I created my own record company.
I was talking to my spiritual advisor. I got a letter from somebody who said that they were about to kill themselves, but they listened to a song of mine and it saved their lives.
For Hunchback, we needed this live, gigantic choir. So we went to London and said, This is Disney! I need singers who can sing high D's, hold them for 18 seconds, and do it 60 times!
Songwriting is the most terrifying thing to me, because you are really laying your heart out there.
I have been writing since I was about 20, and at first I wrote in secret and never showed anybody. I was very concerned about making a living, so I conducted.
My first career was as a coach and a teacher.
When I got to Broadway, I conducted five Broadway shows.
Composition is definitely what I'm born to do, and it came last.
My career keeps shifting; I keep doing the next thing and it keeps growing.
I publish my own music. I'm creating my own songbook. It works that way for me; I'm very independent.
I fought for years and spent a fortune fighting and never got anywhere.
I've been doing my big theater projects, which take years, and writing a song here and there.
I've written several deeply personal songs this year, which I really love. Some of them came out of intense sadness. This has been an extremely difficult year for me.
