Andrew Lloyd Webber

We felt we had to know something of his back story. I don't think people in the cinema would just accept that he's there. I think we had to learn how he (got there).

I remember, once I was going through Nice airport with Roger Moore, and these kids came up and asked for our autographs. Afterwards, Roger said, 'It must be very strange for you. I'm an actor, and signing autographs is part of what I do. But you're a public figure who people don't really know.' He was right.

I have always tried with my shows - win, lose, or draw - to take the boundaries of music as far as I can.

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.

Corny answer is of course is that everyone who wants musicals are children in different ways, aren't they? So you think of them in different ways. There are things of mine I'm sorry haven't come here.

I think Michael Crawford realised, I think we all realised, once we'd gone the route of casting a very young girl, you can't really cast a 65 year old man opposite. Slightly different resonance I think. No, we weren't going to go there. We'd have Jack Nicholson in the lead.

People like to put you into a box. I'm afraid I don't sit in a box.

Where I have come unstuck sometimes has mostly been to do with the stories not being quite right or not connecting with a contemporary audience.

I think that the wonderful advantage we have in the film of being able to cast a girl as young as Emmy and which we couldn't do in the theatre of course because no girl of 16 or 17 could sing 8 shows a week, couldn't sing two.

I put a hell of a lot of myself into 'Love Never Dies,' and I felt quite drained afterwards.

My love of musical theater was certainly not typical. I mean, it was considered to be very, very abnormal, in fact!

The Phantom of the Opera' is about love. It's as simple as that.