Stephen Schwartz

“There have always been discussions about a 'Pippin' movie. I think it would lend itself very well to film if one could solve how to translate the theatrical conceit of the show to film.”

“Our newer wonderful writers such as Lin-Manuel Miranda and Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are clearly so well-informed about the history of musical theater that came before them.”

“I usually like to try to find a title as quickly as I can and work from the title, and then it can go back and forth. Sometimes I do most of the music first. Sometimes I get most of the lyrics first, but more often than not, it's sort of an organic process back and forth.”

“Obviously there is a great deal of heart in the show. You see Ellis Island, you see the Statue of Liberty. But I don't think 'Rags' is about flag-waving.”

“Several of the songs in 'Godspell' are based on Episcopal hymns.”

“I have this slogan: 'in lieu of inspiration, do research.'”

“Very often, I think, if you sell your show to the movies, they say, 'Thank you very much. Go away. Maybe we'll invite you to the premiere.'”

“I've won a few professional resume awards in my time, probably lost more of them that I've won.”

“I find a lot of things to do before I do eventually get to work. I have a built-in horror of missing a deadline and letting everybody down, but I can procrastinate by doing puzzles and reading articles on the Internet and finding ways to delay actually going to work.”

“I think the arts are very important for children growing up.”

“Well, animation is the closest of the film media, or genres if you will, to stage because it's very artificial. Let's face it, it's drawings. And theater is an artificial medium that requires the audience to suspend its disbelief because you can see that you're not really in Egypt, and those aren't really camels or whatever.”

“I sort of get riled up about injustice.”

“I don't think art changes the world, because if it did then we'd live in a better world. But it can change individual people's point of view, like 'Angels in America' did with gay issues.”

“Theatre is a mass art form and is not meant to be elite, only for people who can afford the price of an expensive ticket. That is not what it is about.”

“People like to talk about themselves.”

“Live-action movies are all about looking as real as possible, making you believe, 'I really am on Mars,' or, 'I really am under the ocean,' or whatever. But animation and theater want you to use your imagination more.”

“I love movies, but I never expected to be 'in the movies.'”

“Recording the live production and, therefore, making it much more accessible to a broader audience is a wonderful thing.”

“On Broadway, there is a tradition of the star standing still onstage and singing for three-and-a-half minutes. You can't do that in movies.”

“In writing 'Meadowlark,' I learned about using my own emotional experiences and filtering them through the story of another character. By tapping into the truth of my own emotions, it allowed the song to speak to audiences even though I wasn't doing a straight-out Joni Mitchell confessional.”