Quotes

So far as I know, anything worth hearing is not usually uttered at seven o'clock in the morning; and if it is, it will generally be repeated at a more reasonable hour for a larger and more wakeful audience.

[on Beverly Hills] The most beautiful slave quarters in the world.

[on what later became "Lady in the Dark"] Kurt Weill and I sat at a table in a little midtown [Manhattan] restaurant and told each other vehemently why we should not write a musical comedy. We were both completely uninterested in doing a show for the sake of doing a show, in Broadway parlance, and the tight little formula of the musical comedy stage held no interest for either of us . . . We discovered the kind of show we both definitely DID want to do, a show in which the music carried forward the essential story and was not imposed upon the architecture of the play.

[on writing the screenplay for A Star Is Born (1954)] It was a difficult story to do because the original was so famous, and when you tamper with the original you're inviting all sorts of unfavorable criticism. It had to be changed because I had to say new things about Hollywood--which is quite a feat in itself, as the subject had been worn pretty thin. Add to that the necessity of making this a musical drama, and you'll understand the immediate problems.

[on Julie Andrews] She has that wonderful British strength that makes you wonder why they lost India.