Alan Menken

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.

I think the thing that strikes you when you come back to 'The Little Mermaid' after all of these years is the simplicity and innocence. That's in the look of it, and that's in the sound of it.

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

As a kid, I loved classical music. Composers like Beethoven were like rock stars to me. Then there were the real rock stars: The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and Bob Dylan.

There was a jingle house called Lucas/McFaul in New York, and they called me 'the demo king.' I almost never had the big final - in jingles, you have the big final, and then you sing on it, and you make a good deal of money.

Collaboration is being open to each other's ideas and benefiting from each other's perspectives in an open way.

Howard Ashman was an amazing lyricist and an amazing artist.

The act of writing a song involves a degree of letting go of yourself, and that's very much being a child.

I'm not interested in being the producer of somebody else's song.

I see my songs and shows almost like a mosaic - part of a bigger picture.

When I was younger, I'd get very invested in things. It's a hard lesson to learn, but you have to know that if you want to find gold, you've got to love the process of digging.

I love 'The Gospel Truth,' the song that opened up 'Hercules.' I thought that song was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed producing that and writing that.