“And all the good you've done will soon be swept away, You've begun to matter more than the things you say.”

“Digital is a disaster. No digital radio has the correct time and they don't even agree with each other.”

“I am sure if you went back to the days of 'My Fair Lady,' they would have had one public dress rehearsal, and that is it. And in a way, I would like to go back to that. Now you have people tweeting and blogging immediately, so you may as well regard your first preview as your opening night because you are going to get reviews.”

“I hate doing interviews. I get really bored talking about me.”

“I have a fear of doing stuff that's not very good and being remembered for that.”

“I have always been obsessed with America, the geography, the history, and, of course, the music. I've been lucky enough to have travelled through the country a lot, and, in a kind of anorak way, I've noted which states I've visited and which ones I've been to most often and all that sort of detail.”

“I have radios everywhere around the house, very old battered ones that I've had for years and years. None of them are digital.”

“I love the history of popular music. I love to know what people are listening to, even if I don't like it.”

“I love trains. I don't even mind First Great Western, which is a stupid name because it implies every carriage is first class, but they're not.”

“I recently declined to support a Conservative function because I'm so incensed about these wind turbines. Like all so-called climate-change doubters, I am very pro the environment, but I strongly believe that it is something that can only be cured locally. Some insane overall scheme isn't going to cure all the problems.”

“In the world of musical theatre, if everyone says it's a good idea, you wonder why nobody has done it before.”

“Maintaining our standard; that's our challenge day-in and day-out.”

“September is my favourite month, particularly in Cornwall. I felt, even as a child, that if you get a wonderful day in September, you think: 'This could be one of the last, the summer is nearly over.' If you get a wonderful day in May, you think: 'So what, there's more coming.'”

“There is already huge public interest in stage musicals.”

“To find a new British composer who is really good is rare.”

“Very few artistic partnerships last more than 10 years, and if they do they tend to go down the tubes.”

“We all dream a lot - some are lucky, some are not. But if you think it, want it, dream it, then it's real. You are what you feel.”

“You've got to have a young element in a show. Any project needs youth and dynamism as well old codgerdom and experience.”