1、It's like, you get to a certain age and you stop being a writer who waits tables and you become a waiter with a hobby.
2、"First rate lyric and tune." Those five words were enough to keep me going for the next two years.
3、So far we're up to 12 RSVPs, Jon. You don't need a band with an audience of 12 people. You'll outnumber them.
4、Everyone's unhappy in New York! That's what New York is!
5、What if the workshop happens and nothing changes? No producer with a big check. You don't go straight to Broadway. You're still a waiter, you're still living in this apartment, you're still broke. What then, Jonathan? What about me?
6、- Do you know what I would give for that? You...You turn your nose up at it.
- If that's what you want, what's stopping you?
- What's stopping me? How about Jesse Helms and the Moral Majority? How about the people that run this country? I can't get married. I can't have kids. Half our friends are dying and the other half are scared to death they are next. So, I'm sorry for getting a nice car, Jon. I'm sorry for moving into an apartment with central heating. I'm sorry for enjoying my life while I still have time.
7、I wanna do what you do. I wanna have what you have. I want the BMW, I want the doorman, I want it, I want all of it. Okay? I can't stomach five more years of waiting tables, five more years of writing things that no one will ever see while Broadway just churns out mega-musicals without a hint of even the slightest thing original. or, God forbid, something to actually say about the world!
8、The first presentation of your musical is like having a colonoscopy in Times Square. Only with a colonoscopy, the worst thing that could happen is you find out you have cancer. With a musical, you find out you're already dead.
9、- So what am I supposed to do now?
- You start writing the next one. And after you finish that one, you start on the next. And on and on, and that's what it is to be a writer, honey. You just keep throwing them against the wall and hoping against hope that eventually, something sticks. Little advice from someone who's been in this business a long, long time? On the next one, maybe try writing about what you know.