"Well, I want to do The Music Man. I think it's an amazing opportunity, but I think that they are probably looking at major movie stars right now, and I don't blame them"

"Music is my religion"

"The opportunity to create a small world between two pieces of cardboard, where time exists yet stands still, where people talk and I tell them what to say, is exciting and rewarding"

"I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one"

"All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual"

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away"

"Opportunity makes a thief"

"I've always been into melodies. That's what I love about music – a good melody that gives you goosebumps"

"We worked very hard to make the lyrics suit the music. I can't, like Elton John, for example, compose by lyrics. Elton has a great talent for that. Whatever you give him, including your questions, he composes in half an hour and makes a great song out of it"

"Music is the shorthand of emotion"

"A nation creates music - the composer only arranges it"