Quotes from Alan Menken

I've been very fortunate as a composer to be involved with projects that have really propelled my scores forward. I'm very proud of it.

I was always proud of the score to 'Newsies.' The movie is good, but it was under-budgeted.

I've said, for a long time, my favorite part of my career is when I'm creating a new thing where I'm pulling from a new place.

You're creating a score that has to have an emotional and story logic to it. You want a dramatic arc. You want all the songs to push story forward. That's the same whether it's for stage or film or television or whatever.

I can't get into the underlying psyche of someone like Robin Williams, but he was at that level of fame where he was somewhat self-protective.

Movies, you can insulate yourself more from audience, to a degree, and just look at box office. In theater, the audience is a very dynamic part of your process, and you feel much more exposed.

The job, when you write film underscore, is to be ignored. That comes with the gig, no question about it.

Music can be witty, but it's not funny unless it's conceptually funny.

My favorite thing is a brand-new project from scratch because you really never know how they're going to come to life. Going back for the third and fourth time to old ones is very gratifying, but it's not my favorite use of my creativity.

I'll always work with my collaborator in the room so I have a reaction on a note-by-note basis. I know in my gut when something works for me, and I'll fight for it, but I'm a very easy re-writer.

For a while now, I try to ignore the hoopla, because if you buy into that, you have to buy into the criticism. All you can do is put your work out there and move on; you just never know what will come.

I have the ability to clear the decks and focus on what's happening in the moment. And I get to spend my life doing what I love to do.

Any musical form that has been around long enough to have cultural resonance beyond just being a cutting edge kind of communication - but, especially, when it begins to reflect on a time and reflect on a culture - is effective in a musical.

What brought me to Disney was the new regime, which is now the old regime - came over with Michael Eisner, Frank Wells, Jeffrey Katzenberg - and all these people really wanted to reinvigorate the animated musical, so they came to Howard Ashman and me. That was my entry into Disney.

A lot of what I've done has a rock edge, even going back to 'Little Shop of Horrors.'

Whatever I gain from writing lyrics, I feel I lose a little bit for the musical aspect by having that lyrical burden on me. But when I'm liberated from worrying about the words, frankly, I feel I'm a better composer.

When 'Newsies' first came out, it just crash-landed with a thud; it won a Razzie for worst song of the year, and I felt such embarrassment. Fast-forward, and it's a hit on Broadway, and I win a Tony for the score!

I have an awards cabinet in my studio where I keep my eight Oscars, my 11 Grammys, my seven Golden Globes, and my Tony Award.

I was always a composer since I was a kid, but the BMI Workshop is where the networking really all stems from. So many writers and influences and ways of communicating all sprang out of the time I was a member of that workshop.

If you're writing for yourself as an artist, you are always pulling on your own experiences.

The reality is that people need to be coaxed toward a musical. They need to understand why it's a musical.

It's writing songs within the structure of telling a story, so it becomes a platform for diverse songwriting, for a writing process that's broader than just figuring out a song. You're also dealing with always pushing the story forward, with casting the voices, with the orchestration, with the arrangements.

I'm very proud of 'Will the Sun Ever Shine Again.' That was a song written very close to the 9/11 event.

I always felt great about what I wrote for 'Newsies,' but 'Newsies' was a total flop.