Harold Prince Quotes

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Harold Prince

Profession : Producer

Birth : January 30, 1928

What's missing in the musical theater is producers willing to nurture new work, raise the money and put it on.

Harold Prince

I feel so much more comfortable when I'm working on material which makes other people scratch their heads and ask, 'You're going to make a musical out of that?'

Harold Prince

The idea that I have to be on the same side of the fence as Dan Quayle is cruelly depressing to me, but the truth is, I believe in family values.

Harold Prince

You can't just keep recycling revivals. And you can't keep betting on the efforts of guys like me who've been around. You have to take the next step and bet on the next generation.

Harold Prince

I've seen a lot of 'Show Boats,' but I've never seen the one that thoroughly satisfies me.

Harold Prince

Throwing money at something doesn't really create - forgive me that onerous word - art.

Harold Prince

I don't compare shows. It's very simple. I don't live in the past. If there's any secret to my longevity, it's living in the future. And a little bit in the present.

Harold Prince

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

Harold Prince

I would like to see more new productions of new material by new composers/lyricists/book writers. I would like to see people take more chances. I think because everything costs so much they're not taking the chances they used to.

Harold Prince

You do a show to be a hit and hopefully run a couple of years.

Harold Prince

I remember when people actually wore coats and ties to theatre every night. They don't anymore. It's very different.

Harold Prince

I always had a good time in theatre, even when shows don't turn out as well as I'd like.

Harold Prince

I'm just really trying to say what I really mean, which is: 'Your eye's on the prize, your eye's on the future. It's nice to know that a lot of wonderful things have happened to your life and that so much of it has been successful. That's great, but the work is really what makes it fun - and that has to be the future.'

Harold Prince

I'm on a single track here - I work to direct what I want to see onstage. I basically have been feeding my own needs - to be working on a specific project at a specific time, and fortunately more often it works than fails.

Harold Prince

It's fine when you careen off disasters and terrifyingly bad reviews and rejection and all that stuff when you're young; your resilience is just terrific.

Harold Prince

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

Harold Prince

Everything can't be a postage-stamp-sized project. Everything can't be a chamber piece. Musicals aren't even meant to be that, or identified with it... It's none of it simple.

Harold Prince

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

Harold Prince

I think when you start analyzing trends and start making shows for a particular audience, you are making a fatal move. I think that's why people are doing too many revivals, that's why there's a plethora of rock musicals. There's room for everything, but not room for too much of anything.

Harold Prince

I really like reaching out and seeing the audience - they're potential audiences! And on occasion I can make them excited about going to the theater again, if they've ceased or gone less.

Harold Prince