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

You can't tell the story of a 13-year-old boy who knows every lyric to 'Phantom of the Opera' without also referencing how much teasing he gets at school.

I only know the lyrics to songs that I listened to between the ages of 11 and 15.

People assume that the meaning of a song is vested in the lyrics. To me, that has never been the case. There are very few songs that I can think of where I remember the words.

I watched 'A Chorus Line' over and over when I was growing up, to the point that I was able to recite the entire movie.

You hear about Broadway your whole life, and I learned what it meant to work on Broadway in 'The Phantom of the Opera.'

The songs are my lexicon. I believe the songs.

All I know is what the words know, and dead things, and that makes a handsome little sum, with a beginning and a middle and an end, as in the well-built phrase and the long sonata of the dead.

The lyrics - everything I sing, I've written.