I'm musical in the sense that I can write a song, but I realised when I was learning the piano as a child that there were people who played it so much better.
I think 'Scrooge' is the best of the Christmas stories. Every child warms to it because it's about one man's transformation. It's saying that it's never too late to change, and that's a good feeling to have at Christmas.
When I wake up, if I can't figure something out during the daytime and then wake up at 4 A.M., it's there immediately. I don't know if it's the subconscious mind working, but it just happens.
When you live in a world of imagination, your imagination doesn't necessarily grow old with you.
My view is that the great songwriting happened between 1920 and 1960. We're all, in our different ways, descended from the great songwriters of that era.
I never try to predict what will happen to any project, ever. There are so many factors. Does the public like the subject matter, the way you handle it?
I fell in love with the idea of writing songs when I was a child. I thought I was going to be a journalist at first, but I gradually fell in love with all these great writers like Irving Berlin and Cole Porter, who were at the peak of their powers then.
It's much easier to write a song for a musical than just writing a song because, writing for a musical, you know what the story is about, so you know what the songs have got to say.