Andrew Lloyd Webber
We don't have butlers. Obviously we have people who look after the houses, but I try not to run things formally.
I don't think I am that materialistic, actually. Obviously at home in the country the art collection is important, but we have one big room in the middle of the house where we do everything - the television, the kitchen, everything.
The regrets in the theatre have always been the shows that you know ought to have worked but for one reason or another haven't.
The moment the doctor said he wanted to do a biopsy, in my heart I thought I'd probably got it. But I also know a lot of people who have also had prostate cancer, so I had a reasonably good idea what to expect.
All I've ever tried to do is get the best out of people and to bring a bit of humour into it. Unlike, say, 'The X-Factor,' which may be great TV, but has no humour at all.
Surely, you go to the theater because you want to have a great evening in the theater.
'Phantom of the Opera' started in my little 100-seater converted church in Britain with a stage where we did what we did. But it was the score itself was what made it.
As a composer at a point where I can absolutely pick and choose what I want to do, I don't want to write about anybody I don't care about.
I haven't written a score that's going to change the Western world or the musical as we presently know it.
One would be lying if one didn't say that one had melodies that I keep in my back pocket.
Two pieces of advice for young composers: Go away during technical rehearsals. And do not have a back operation.
A couple of back operations didn't cure anything, but instead, things got worse and worse and worse.
You cannot help but notice that schools that take music seriously tend to be more academically successful.
I've often thought that we left the original 'Phantom' with a little bit of a cliff hanger, and I thought, 'Well, why not to do a sequel to it' at one point.
'The Phantom of the Opera' is the biggest thing I've ever done, bigger even than 'Cats' which, in itself, I never thought we'd top.
Nobody ever thinks that the work they're going to do could ever be bigger than the one they do before, especially if you're lucky enough like I had to have such a huge thing as 'Phantom' was.
Glenn Slater is my lyricist who, of the new young lyricists coming along, is the most exciting, I think.
My wife says I can't remember if she has milk in coffee.
I have a very strong will.
Mobiles mean people know where you are.
I'm wondering whether to have someone go around with my mobile to completely throw everybody off the scent. I could appear in weird places.
I'm not a critic, and I never talk about other people's work.
Sometimes I get the story wrong, or it's the wrong story, and then things don't work.
You can't just sort of come with, say, 'Yesterday,' or 'A Hard Day's Night,' and it be in the wrong place in the wrong show, and expect the song to work theatrically.
If you just want ten songs to fit somebody else's script, then I'm not really the composer for that.
The one thing I have always felt about musical theatre is that it is, to an extraordinary degree, about construction.
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'm a ladies' man who can never make love. I'm resigned to that.
I'm alive. I have my music; I have my children. I am the luckiest man.
At one point I couldn't move or get out of bed or anything. I developed blood clots because I'd been completely inactive. Then they thought - because the pain was so much - I had an infection in the bones, so they gave me pills, which gave me a tummy infection. It's like a French farce.
Making good television is what Simon Cowell does. That's his business.
The fact is that 'The Wizard Of Oz' has never really worked in the theatre. The film has one or two holes where, in the theatre, you need a song. For example, there's nothing for either of the two witches to sing.
I never wanted to be a performer. I suppose I was precocious, really.
Disgracefully, the arts have too often borne the brunt of short-sighted cuts to educational budgets.
Musicals are very collaborative. Unless you find somebody who wants to do something with you and has equal commitment, it's not going to work.
The plot of my 'Phantom' is pretty much mine. It's based on the Gaston Leroux book - I've taken a lot of liberties with it.
It never occurred to me that 'Phantom of the Opera' was the sort of subject that I'd want to do, because I just thought it was something that would be a bit jokey. 'Til I read the book.
What I can't tell is, I don't know if there's a subliminal resistance to the idea of a sequel to 'The Phantom of the Opera' anyway.
There's no getting around it: Writing is hard, while working with young performers is nearly always a joy.
I do want to write again. I hope to. But it's also important for me to realize, as I get older, that I don't have to be doing everything all at once.
We try to get the best performance out of the artists. There is no point in saying to them, 'You're useless.'
If you look at my career... I couldn't possibly have chosen those subjects if I was thinking, 'That's a great commercial idea.' I'm not aware of a great musical where someone has done that.
After I had prostate cancer, I had something which was misdiagnosed which led to a load of back operations.
I got known as the school swot, which wasn't me at all.
I was about 10, and I was supposed to be playing the piano at the school concert, and I got up in front of the whole school and said, 'I'm sorry. I'm changing the agenda. I want to play some songs I've written.'
I have always tried with my shows - win, lose, or draw - to take the boundaries of music as far as I can.
I want to get every church in the country on Wi-Fi.
They should go back to the medieval tradition, which is that the nave of the church is always used for local business.
My love of musical theater was certainly not typical. I mean, it was considered to be very, very abnormal, in fact!