'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

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

The music you love when you're a teenager is always going to be the most important to you, and I find that it's all over the score of 'Hamilton.'

Lin-Manuel Miranda

History is so subjective. The teller of it determines it.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

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

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

Lin-Manuel Miranda

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

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

Everything we know about Hamilton, we knew when he was alive, because he told us.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

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

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

Anytime you write something, you go through so many phases. You go through the 'I'm a Fraud' phase. You go through the 'I'll Never Finish' phase. And every once in a while you think, 'What if I actually have created what I set out to create, and it's received as such?'

Lin-Manuel Miranda

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

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

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

I made a movie when I was 15 years old with all my friends. This is when IMDb was a little more lax with its proceedings, so it's listed as one of my projects. I was 15 years old; it's a terrible movie. I wrote 50 percent of it because I wanted to kiss this one girl, and I wrote a kissing scene for it.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

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

Lin-Manuel Miranda

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

Lin-Manuel Miranda

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

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

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Lin-Manuel Miranda Quotes

'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.

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

The music you love when you're a teenager is always going to be the most important to you, and I find that it's all over the score of 'Hamilton.'

History is so subjective. The teller of it determines it.

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

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.

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.

Everything we know about Hamilton, we knew when he was alive, because he told us.

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.

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.'

Anytime you write something, you go through so many phases. You go through the 'I'm a Fraud' phase. You go through the 'I'll Never Finish' phase. And every once in a while you think, 'What if I actually have created what I set out to create, and it's received as such?'

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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