You're the luckiest person in the entire world if you know what you really want to do, which I was lucky enough to know when I was very young. And you're the luckiest person in the world if you can then make a living out of it.
Glenn Slater is my lyricist who, of the new young lyricists coming along, is the most exciting, I think.
Well the least favourite question is the one that one's asked particularly about in Japan is what's the difference between theatre and cinema and I think, well, that's about eighty bucks.
Two years ago I hadn't even thought of the Woman in White, and I was doing a television show and I said I hadn't found a story and the next day somebody rang me and said have you ever thought of the Woman in White.
The next few years are going to be horrendous in the UK. The last thing we need is a Somali pirate-style raid on the few wealth creators who still dare to navigate Britain's gale-force waters.
I've a rare Turkish swimming cat.
I mean I don't really think about it. You know, do you know what I often say to myself? I think you're very lucky in life if you know what you want to do.
The fact is that 'The Wizard Of Oz' has never really worked in the theatre. The film has one or two holes where, in the theatre, you need a song. For example, there's nothing for either of the two witches to sing.
You can't just sort of come with, say, 'Yesterday,' or 'A Hard Day's Night,' and it be in the wrong place in the wrong show, and expect the song to work theatrically.
I'm alive. I have my music; I have my children. I am the luckiest man.
There's no getting around it: Writing is hard, while working with young performers is nearly always a joy.
When we finally came to start work on this, the joy was it was only Joel and I, we didn't have to answer to anybody, and we didn't have to submit a screen play or anything like that. We just wrote it and then made it.
I'm a ladies' man who can never make love. I'm resigned to that.
I got known as the school swot, which wasn't me at all.
I think back at the time, if it had been 1988, I would have thought Michael and Sarah probably would have been cast but I don't think, I think it's much better that the girl is younger and if Sarah would have been 26 or 27 then.
I'm going to take the kids away over Christmas but I don't, I've written 14 musicals now, I don't want to rush into doing something just for the sake of doing it. I want to do it when I find a story.
Since 'School of Rock' opened, for the first time in my career, ever, really, I've had a lot of projects offered to me. It's extraordinary. Normally, I've initiated them all myself.
Together, we can nurture the talent of the future and bring the empowering force of music and the arts to a new generation.
Disgracefully, the arts have too often borne the brunt of short-sighted cuts to educational budgets.
I guess we've had a very close relationship because I don't pretend to know about cinema and I think I do know a bit about theatre but he does, he respected that and so we really just had a collaboration which went completely like this.
I've often thought that we left the original 'Phantom' with a little bit of a cliff hanger, and I thought, 'Well, why not to do a sequel to it' at one point.
People like to put you into a box. I'm afraid I don't sit in a box.
The arts are the one thing that appeal right across all forms of politics, race, creed - everything.
I've got to find something and if I find something that I like, I'll do it. If I don't, I won't.
One would be lying if one didn't say that one had melodies that I keep in my back pocket.
'Phantom of the Opera' started in my little 100-seater converted church in Britain with a stage where we did what we did. But it was the score itself was what made it.
I'm a composer, and therefore I know when I've written a good tune. When you've written a good song is when you know that the lyric is completely coalesced with the song.
If you look at my career... I couldn't possibly have chosen those subjects if I was thinking, 'That's a great commercial idea.' I'm not aware of a great musical where someone has done that.
I don't think I am that materialistic, actually. Obviously at home in the country the art collection is important, but we have one big room in the middle of the house where we do everything - the television, the kitchen, everything.
I have a very strong will.
Musicals are very collaborative. Unless you find somebody who wants to do something with you and has equal commitment, it's not going to work.
I want to get every church in the country on Wi-Fi.
As a composer at a point where I can absolutely pick and choose what I want to do, I don't want to write about anybody I don't care about.
Negative things, and they were all deliberate and I'm not going to say who they were but I know who they were and it was in the business, and that's not a good sign.
'The Phantom of the Opera' is the biggest thing I've ever done, bigger even than 'Cats' which, in itself, I never thought we'd top.
I never wanted to be a performer. I suppose I was precocious, really.
In Evita I wasn't really hugely involved with it. I gave a little bit of help but they needed a bit of technical help on the movie and so some of my music people went in at the end of the movie and helped out with it.
A couple of back operations didn't cure anything, but instead, things got worse and worse and worse.
What strikes me is that there's a very fine line between success and failure. Just one ingredient can make the difference.
You never know what will happen. There is a thing called zeitgeist. You have to hit it.
I loved medieval architecture when I was very small; I don't know why.
After I had prostate cancer, I had something which was misdiagnosed which led to a load of back operations.
I often think of random melodies. And I pretty much hear in my head what I want to do with the orchestra as I'm writing on the piano.
I was about 10, and I was supposed to be playing the piano at the school concert, and I got up in front of the whole school and said, 'I'm sorry. I'm changing the agenda. I want to play some songs I've written.'
Two pieces of advice for young composers: Go away during technical rehearsals. And do not have a back operation.
Music, architecture and pictures have always been my passions, and all that material wealth has meant for me, is being able to have some of the pictures I liked.
You cannot help but notice that schools that take music seriously tend to be more academically successful.
Nothing will ever be as big as 'The Phantom of the Opera' for me.
All I've ever tried to do is get the best out of people and to bring a bit of humour into it. Unlike, say, 'The X-Factor,' which may be great TV, but has no humour at all.
