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" You know what's a great way of tricking people into thinking you're a genius? Write a show about geniuses! "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Know
Genius
Great
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" A lot of the reason the Universal version of 'Heights' went away is that they were afraid they didn't have a big enough Latino star to bankroll this movie. The people I dealt with at the studio who wanted to make this movie were very passionate about it. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Enough
People
Heights
" History is so subjective. The teller of it determines it. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
History
Determines
Subjective
" 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. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Trying
Try
Think
" 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. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Stage
Way
Story
" I grew up in an immigrant neighborhood. We just knew the rule was you're going to have to work twice as hard. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Immigrant
Work
Hard
" In the best works of fiction, there's no mustache-twirling villain. I try to write shows where even the bad guy's got his reasons. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Write
Villain
Bad
" 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. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Song
Heights
White
" 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. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Hollywood
Heights
Tough
" Making words rhyme for a living is one of the great joys of my life... That's a superpower I've been very conscious of developing. I started at the same level as everybody else, and then I just listened to more music and talked to myself until it was an actual superpower I could pull out on special occasions. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Great
Life
More
" I like the quiet it takes to pursue an idea the way I pursued 'Hamilton,' but I couldn't write a book, because there's no applause at the end of writing a book. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
End
Writing
Way
" We've had characters like Trump in American politics forever, characters who trade on xenophobia. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Forever
American
Trade
" I only know how to write musicals. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Only
Musicals
Know
" '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. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Trust
Courage
Hope
" What 'Twilight Zone' did was show we all have a great capacity for good and evil. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Great
Evil
Good
" Because of the success of 'Hamilton' and 'On Your Feet!' you can't hide behind the old argument of, 'It needs to be bankable, so we can't put all these people of color in the show.' We are bankable. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Success
Color
Feet
" 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. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Hip-Hop
Treat
Joke
" 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. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Time
Say
People
" 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. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Games
I Can
Me
" The reason 'Hamilton' works is because there is no distance between that story that happened 200-some-odd years ago and now, because it looks like America now. It helps create a connection that wouldn't have been there if it was 20 white guys on stage. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
White
Distance
Create
" 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.' "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Racism
Enough
You
" 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.' "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Think
Black
Experience
" Everything we know about Hamilton, we knew when he was alive, because he told us. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Alive
He
Us
" 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. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
My Life
Work
Life
" In 'Hamilton,' we're telling the stories of old, dead white men, but we're using actors of color, and that makes the story more immediate and more accessible to a contemporary audience. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Color
Dead
Men
" The fun for me in collaboration is, one, working with other people just makes you smarter; that's proven. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Collaboration
Fun
Me
" 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. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Me
Responsibility
Time
" I like to separate the music- and lyric-writing processes if I can. I'll sort of noodle around on my keyboard and my computer until I have a beat or a chord progression, I'll record it as a loop, export it to iTunes, then walk around with the loop and sort of talk to myself in the loop, and that's how I get the lyrics. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Myself
Music
Like
" Sometimes a line enters your head, and you're so grateful for it. You go online to check to see if anyone wrote it before you. You must have stolen it. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
See
You
Sometimes
" The musicals that leave us kind of staggering on our feet are the ones that really reach for a lot. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Leave
Feet
Kind
" What's incredible about 'Hamilton,' and the reason you can't get a ticket, is because everyone's responding to it. Everyone is seeing a bit of themselves in it. "
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Everyone
You
Seeing