Harold Prince Quotes

The idea is to work and to experiment. Some things will be creatively successful, some things will succeed at the box office, and some things will only - which is the biggest only - teach you things that see the future. And they're probably as valuable as any of your successes.

Despite the successes, you remember the failures - rather lovingly.

Audiences are quite happy to be astonished, and they don't care who does that astonishing.

Artistic self-indulgence is the mark of an amateur. The temptation to make scenes, to appear late, to call in sick, not to meet deadlines, not to be organized, is at heart a sign of your own insecurity and at worst the sign of an amateur.

Criticism is valuable... and self-congratulatory experiences are not.

I don't look back. I look forward and plan new shows. That's really feeding the most important part of working in the theater.

It's a terrible shame if you're born the brightest guy in your class. If you're not, then you have to hustle-and that's good.

The musical has always been in jeopardy - until - or was in jeopardy until it was realised that it is probably the safest living theatre art form.

I like to do everything you can possibly do before you go into rehearsal, because once we are in rehearsal or on the stage there will be a problem I didn’t anticipate. It’s really good to think we got it all nailed - of course you’ve never got it all nailed.

I didn't go into the theater to be a producer, I went into the theater to be a director.

I got successful awfully quick, and I wanted it... But I do think there is responsibility to move the musical theater form forward. I think you always have to be aware of the work that came before and build on that.

I'm always glad to see somebody rethink something rather than reproduce something I did.

I have a terrible memory because I'm not interested in the past. It's done, it's done.

A star may guarantee business, but the tradeoff is a very short run.

The perfect expression of receiving a lifetime award is to be working when they're handing it out.

We've got to find a way to protect the process of making musical theater.

When I was a producer, the fun of the show was waking up with a hit and enjoying the period after the show opens. The fun of a director stops the day it opens. No matter if it's a success or a failure, it's not a whole lot of fun anymore.

I love big, bold, truthful theater - the tradition of Victorian theater.

I really don't spend time thinking about the past. I think about the future. I'm not stopping.

I don't like abrasion while I'm working. I don't thrive on chaos. I enjoy what I'm doing, and it seems to work better when I am enjoying it.

I'm a pragmatic man. I'll veer on the dangerous side, because I love dangerous subjects, but I won't shoot a show in the foot.

Most of the big money people don't know what would interest an audience if you did it. They only know what interested the audience last time.

You think, 'Musicals, they must always be romantic' - You'd be surprised how few of them historically have ever been romantic.

I really wish people - maybe it's naive - wish people had priorities and were willing to be artistic patrons.

I was there when the quote-unquote golden age of musical theater was flourishing. I met everybody who worked in theater or was famous in theater from the '40s on.