Lin-Manuel Miranda Quotes

You didn't expect these notes to turn into my therapy session, did you?

[BURR]
I am the one thing in life I can control.

I couldn't possibly write 'Next to Normal,' but God, I can weep and watch 'Next to Normal' five times.

When my prayers to God were met with indifference, I picked up a pen, I wrote my own deliverance

My only responsibility as a playwright and a storyteller is to give you the time of your life in the theatre. I just happen to think that with Hamilton's story, sticking close to the facts helps me. All the most interesting things in the show happened.

One of my first favorite books was 'The 12 Days of Christmas,' and I would just go up to people and say, 'I can sing 'The 12 Days of Christmas,' and I would make them sit through me reciting it, and I'd go all the way, each time. I've always hooked into lyrics.

And when my time is up, have I done enough? Will they tell my story?

(Questlove) Is this the most revolutionary thing to happen to Broadway, or the most revolutionary thing to happen to hip-hop?

You have married an Icarus;
He has flown too close to the sun

Ed Koch once said that New York City is where immigrants come to audition for America. That's what happened to my parents; that's what happened to me.

Southern motherfucking democratic-republicans

This is familiar in contemporary politics.

The plan is to fan this spark into a flame

I work my inspiration til I find a spark of life in it
I draw on it
I siphon it
I earn my multi-hyphenate.

Hamlet' dwarfs 'Hamilton' - it dwarfs pretty much everything - but there's a revealing similarity between them. Shakespeare's longest play leaves its audience in the dark about some basic and seemingly crucial facts. It's not as if the Bard forgot, in the course of all those words, to tell us whether Hamlet was crazy or only pretending: He wanted us to wonder. He forces us to work on a puzzle that has no definite answer. And this mysteriousness is one reason why we find the play irresistible.

'Hamilton' is riddled with question marks. The first act begins with a question, and so does the second. The entire relationship between Hamilton and Burr is based on a mutual and explicit lack of comprehension: 'I will never understand you,' says Hamilton, and Burr wonders, 'What it is like in his shoes?'

Again and again, Lin distinguishes characters by what they wish they knew. 'What'd I miss?' asks Jefferson in the song that introduces him. 'Would that be enough?' asks Eliza in the song that defines her. 'Why do you write like you're running out of time?' asks everybody in a song that marvels at Hamilton's drive, and all but declares that there's no way to explain it. 'Hamilton', like 'Hamlet', gives an audience the chance to watch a bunch of conspicuously intelligent and well-spoken characters fill the stage with 'words, words, words,' only to discover, again and again, the limits to what they can comprehend.

His hair has gone grey. He passes every day. They say he walks the length of the city.

[NINA]
When I was younger, I'd imagine what would happen
If my parents had stayed in Puerto Rico
Who would I be if I had never seen Manhattan
If I lived in Puerto Rico with my people

I wish writing were really like the way Andy staged it here: Me in a mania at a desk while a group of people stand around cheering in awe. More realistically, it's me pooping around on Twitter until I get an idea.

You know what's a great way of tricking people into thinking you're a genius? Write a show about geniuses!

We've had characters like Trump in American politics forever, characters who trade on xenophobia.

The only other thing that's like video games for me is watching tennis on TV. I can have it on, and there's a rhythmic quality to it - I can be watching Wimbledon or the U.S. Open and still be working.

'West Wing' was huge. Like 'Hamilton,' it pulls back the curtain on how decision-making happens at the highest level, or at least how you hope it would be. The amount of information Aaron Sorkin packs into a scene gave me this courage to trust the audience to keep up.

[ELIZA]
You and your words flooded my senses, your sentences left me defenseless. You built me palaces out of paragraphs, you built cathedrals.

{ELIZA]
I have never been the type to try and grab the spotlight. We were at a revel with some rebels on a hot night. Laughing at my sister as she dazzling the room. Then you walked in and my heart went boom.

Death doesn't discriminate between the sinners and the saints, it takes and it takes and it takes, and we keep living anyway....

I'll make the world safe and sound for you..
You will come of age with our young nation.
We'll bleed and fight for you, we'll make it right for you.
If we lay a strong enough foundation.. We'll pass it on to you, we'll give the world to you.

I'm erasing myself from the narrative. Let future historians wonder how Eliza reacted when you broke her heart.

Gmorning!
You're gonna make mistakes.
You're gonna fail.
You're gonna get back up.
You're gonna break hearts.
You're gonna change minds.
You're gonna make noise.
You're gonna make music.
You're gonna be late, let's GO.

Gnight!
You're gonna fall down.
You're gonna be tested.
You're gonna learn about yourself.
You're gonna get brave.
You're gonna take stands.
You're gonna make waves.
You're gonna make history.
You're gonna need rest, REST UP.

Alexander Hamilton's too much. He's very extra a lot of the time.

Time alone is the gift of self-entertainment - and that is the font of creativity

I think if you want to make a recipe for making a writer, have them feel a little out of place everywhere, have them be an observer kind of all the time.

Lin says the sensation of standing in the middle of these unsettling effects is a distilled version of how he feels throughout the show: "I am staying in my lane and doing what I'm supposed to do while everyone is doing what they do at the height of their abilities, and if I move to the left or right, I'll get hit with a desk.

I don't differentiate between black and Latino actors. We're in the same struggle to be represented in a way that's even close to honest. And I can tell you that the amount of Latino characters I can point at and say, 'That's what my life experience looks like' - I can't think of any off the top of my head besides Jimmy Smits in 'Mi Familia.'

[NINA]
When I was a child I stayed wide awake
Climbed to the highest place
On every fire escape
Restless to climb

I got every scholarship
Saved every dollar
The first to go to college
How do I tell them why
I'm coming back home?

If art can help us grieve, can help us mourn, then lean on it.

You have no control. Who lives, who dies, who tells your story.

Gmorning.
Consider the headache that waits for caffeine.
Consider the silence that waits for music.
Consider the shoreline that waits for the tide to come in.
Now consider what YOU'RE waiting for,
And what simply won't wait anymore.

Gnight.
Consider the heartbreak that waits for relief.
Consider the treasure that waits for discovery.
Consider the crops that wait for rain.
Now consider what YOU'RE waiting for,
And what waits for you while you wait.

Life doesn't discriminate
Between the sinners and the saints
It takes and it takes and it takes
And we keep living anyway
We rise and we fall and we break
And we make our mistakes

I think I'm always subconsciously trying to write the ideal school play. Lots of parts for everybody, great parts for women - don't forget, more girls try out than boys in the school play; everyone gets to be in the school play.

If there is a Busta Rhymes of musical theater, it probably is Mandy Patinkin.

This was the way into Burr. I knew he and Hamilton circled each other all their lives, I knew they went from friends to frenemies to foes, but it wasn't til I read this detail online - that Theodosia was married to a British officer when Aaron Burr met her, and he waited until she was available - that the character of Burr came free in my imagination. Imagine Hamilton waiting - for anything. That's when I realized our task was to dramatize not two ideological opposites, but a fundamental difference in temperament.

Love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside.

The feeling of freedom, of seein' the light
It's Ben Franklin with a key and a kite! You see it, right?

Gmorning.
Grateful for growing pains,
Grateful for the lines on my face,
Grateful for the crick in my neck,
Grateful for hot showers,
Grateful for broken coffee machines,
Grateful for the thumbs typing this,
Grateful for another day alive at the same time as you.

Gnight.
Grateful for long days,
Grateful for aches and pains,
Grateful for quick pad thai delivery,
Grateful for hot baths,
Grateful for early work calls tomorrow,
Grateful for the thumbs typing this,
Grateful for another day alive at the same time as you.

The past places no absolute limit on the future.

Good morning.
You got a good head on your shoulders.
As for your shoulders?
F***ing magnificent.
GO get 'em today.

(On 'The Story Of Tonight (Reprise)')

Tommy Kail and I always described this scene as "When your hometown friends are at the party with your college friends.

Look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now.

A big part of growing up is bringing all of yourself into a space, not just the parts of yourself that relate to the people in the room.

We love 'Fiddler.' We love 'West Side Story.' I want to be in that club. I want to be in the club that writes the musical that every high school does.

I'm not throwing away my shot.

I can't say I have enough experience with Hollywood to feel that I've encountered racism there. I can tell you that I did about five fruitless years of auditioning for voiceovers where I did variations on tacos and Latin accents, and my first screen role was as a bellhop on 'The Sopranos.'

Come on brain, think of things
Come on brain, think of things
Come on brain, be so smart

Build us a bridge to where you are.

What I learned from my go-round with 'In the Heights' is that it's tough to make a movie. In Hollywood, even the people in charge have people in charge.

...the true lessons of the American Revolution. The past places no absolute limit on the future. Even the unlikeliest changes can occur. But change requires hope-in the case of both of those unlikely victories, the hope that the American people could defy all expectation to overcome their differences and set each other free.

Sometimes the right person tells the right story at the right moment, and through a combination of luck and design, a creative expression gains new force.

I think Lafayette wants to rap in French now. I have to go learn some French.
Damn it, Lafayette

Oh Philip, when you smile I am undone.
My son.
Look at my son. Pride is not the word I'm looking for.
There is so much more inside me now.
Oh Philip, you outshine the morning sun.

In their eyes I see you, Alexander
I see you every time

I'm honored to have been chosen as a fellow of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. I am hugely appreciative for the support I have had throughout my life, and I look forward to using the grant to help institutions that have fed my soul and to support new work that inspires me.

When I get called in for stuff for Hollywood, I get to be the best friend of the Caucasian leadIf I want to play the main guy, I have found, I have to write it.

The fun for me in collaboration is, one, working with other people just makes you smarter; that's proven.

Pa
I did exactly as you said, Pa
I held my head up high..

Even before we got to ten
I was aiming for the sky
I was aiming for the sky

Good morning.
I'm tired. I bet you're tired.
But we're awake and alive and that's enough. C'mon.
C'mon.

Good night.
I'm tired. I bet you're tired.
But we're awake and alive and that's enough. C'mon.
C'mon.

I grew up in an immigrant neighborhood. We just knew the rule was you're going to have to work twice as hard.

I walk alone to the store
And it's quiet uptown
I never liked the quiet before
I take the children to church on Sunday
A sign of the cross at the door
And I pray
That never used to happen before

I always had an eye toward the stage for the story of Hamilton's life, but I began with the idea of a concept album, the way Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Evita' and 'Jesus Christ Superstar' were albums before they were musicals.

You could do a 'Les Mis'-type musical about Hamilton, but it would have to be 12 hours long, because the amount of words on the bars when you're writing a typical song - that's maybe got 10 words per line.

I was having a drink with Hugh Laurie, with whom I'd worked on his series House, and I told him I wanted to write a breakup letter from King George to the colonies. Without blinking, he improv'd at me, "Awwww, you'll be back," wagging his finger. I laughed and filed it away. Thanks, Hugh Laurie.

Why do you write like you're running out of time?

Talk less. Smile more. Don't let them know what you're against or what you're for.

If it takes fighting a way for us to meet, it will have been worth it.

Think of the blood we've spilled looking for the best expression of 'All men are created equal'.

There's been lots of theater that uses hip-hop in it, but more often than not, it's used as a joke - isn't it hilarious that these characters are rapping. I treat it as a musical form, and a musical form that allows you to pack in a ton of lyric.

Good Morning
Don't wait on anyone to make your favorite thing
Make your own favorite thing
Go

On his way offstage, the president shook hands with Lin and said, "I'm proud of you, man." (In a gesture of self-restraint, Lin had stuck to the performance calendar they had announced before learning that President Obama was coming, the one that said Javier Muñoz would play Hamilton that afternoon.)

History is entirely created by the person who tells the story.

Lin beamed, and threw a couple of triumphant middle fingers in the air.

That's being yourself. Chasing wherever inspiration goes, even if it's radically different from the thing that people know you as.

I kind of need to be ambulatory to write lyrics.

My father wasn't around.
I swear that I'll be around for you.

Biggie and Big Pun were the best storytellers of the '90s. I would get wrapped up in the narrative of what they were talking about.

Good morning, stunner.
You're just getting started.
Your age doesn't matter.
The sun is up, the day is new,
You're just getting started.

The Hulk before intermission, Bruce Banner after it.

I may not live to see our glory
But I will gladly join the fight
And when our children tell our story
They'll tell the story of tonight

Gmorning.
This feeling will pass.
This workload will pass.
These people will pass.
But look at you, with the gift of memory.
You can time travel to the good stuff just by closing your eyes & breathing.
Then come right back to now, eyes up for the good stuff ahead.
You magic thing.

Gnight.
This moment will pass.
This fatigue will pass.
Tonight will pass.
But look at you, with the gift of imagination.
You can teleport to where you're happiest just by closing your eyes and breathing.
Then come right back to now, check in with the present.
You magic thing, you.

You are perfectly cast in your life. I can't imagine anyone but you in the role. Go play.

Pretty much anything William Shatner is in is great. He's great at playing that 'I'm the only one sane in the world' character.

When I was asked to do a song from 'In the Heights' at the White House in 2009, I chose instead to do 'Alexander Hamilton' because I felt like I was meeting a moment.

Good morning.
Lead with gratitude.
The air in your lungs, the sky above you.
Proceed from there.

I stop wasting time on tears.
I live another fifty years.
It's not enough!

[HAMILTON}
There's a million things I haven't done but just you wait.
Just you wait.

To engender empathy and create a world using only words is the closest thing we have to magic.

When Lin optioned his book, Ron was relieved that the Founding Father who had the most dramatic and least appreciated life story would finally get his due - even though a rap musical was the last way that Ron had anticipated Hamilton getting it.

What is a legacy? It's planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.

love is love is love is love is love

I am not throwing away my shot.
I am not throwing away my shot.
I'm just like my country.
I'm young, scrappy, and hungry.
And I am not throwing away my shot.

The musicals that leave us kind of staggering on our feet are the ones that really reach for a lot.

The only shows I saw as a kid were that holy trinity: 'Les Miz,' 'Cats,' 'Phantom.'