“If I cannot fly, let me sing.”

“Music blows lyrics up very quickly, and suddenly they become more than art. They become pompous and they become self-conscious ... I firmly believe that lyrics have to breathe and give the audience...”

“I prefer neurotic people. I like to hear rumblings beneath the surface.”

“One difference between poetry and lyrics is that lyrics sort of fade into the background. They fade on the page and live on the stage when set to music.”

“Music straightjackets a poem and prevents it from breathing on its own, whereas it liberates a lyric. Poetry doesn't need music; lyrics do.”

“The dumbing down of the country reflects itself on Broadway. The shows get dumber, and the public gets used to them. ”

“Unless the object of the singer’s affection is a vampire, surely what Hart means is unphotogenic. Only vampires are unphotographable, but affectionate ‘-enic’ rhymes are hard to come by.”

“Poetry is the shadow cast by our streetlight imaginations.”

“I only live to love so manyFig trees but could neverSleep under one. One is tooLittle in one lifetime.”