Alan Menken

I'm not interested in being the producer of somebody else's song.

— Alan Menken

Every time I play 'Part of Your World,' a whole part of my life comes back to me. It's just inescapable -…

— Alan Menken

My first success was 'Little Shop of Horrors,' and I had been working for years on jingles.

— Alan Menken

Part of the job is knowing how to use this medium in the most effective way for the story you're telling, so…

— Alan Menken

I'll always work with my collaborator in the room so I have a reaction on a note-by-note basis. I know in my…

— Alan Menken

I think the thing that strikes you when you come back to 'The Little Mermaid' after all of these years is the…

— Alan Menken

Music is a gestalt. Songs are a life force and they have specific vocabulary to them. You hear a few notes, and…

— Alan Menken

I see my songs and shows almost like a mosaic - part of a bigger picture.

— Alan Menken

I have an awards cabinet in my studio where I keep my eight Oscars, my 11 Grammys, my seven Golden Globes, and…

— Alan Menken

My favorite thing is a brand-new project from scratch because you really never know how they're going to come to life. Going…

— Alan Menken

Truth be told, of course, what I enjoy most is reinventing myself and doing new projects where I work in new genres,…

— Alan Menken

I love 'The Gospel Truth,' the song that opened up 'Hercules.' I thought that song was a lot of fun, and I…

— Alan Menken

Collaboration is all about rewriting and rewriting and rewriting and helping each other to constantly improve a piece. And, it's also about…

— Alan Menken

I have the ability to clear the decks and focus on what's happening in the moment. And I get to spend my…

— Alan Menken

Movies, there are moments when you're writing a song or demoing, a moment in the recording studio. Musicals much more just eat…

— Alan Menken

For a while now, I try to ignore the hoopla, because if you buy into that, you have to buy into the…

— Alan Menken

A villain number is a very valuable thing to have, but if you look at most musicals, one way or another there's…

— Alan Menken

I work in a dramatic context, meaning we write with a lot of character specifics, a lot of story specifics. There's a…

— Alan Menken

It's writing songs within the structure of telling a story, so it becomes a platform for diverse songwriting, for a writing process…

— Alan Menken

I've been very fortunate as a composer to be involved with projects that have really propelled my scores forward. I'm very proud…

— Alan Menken

A lot of what I've done has a rock edge, even going back to 'Little Shop of Horrors.'

— Alan Menken

I always wanted to have a villain song for Hades in 'Hercules,' but I couldn't figure out how we would have Hades…

— Alan Menken

Whether it's animated, whether it's live-action, whether it's Broadway, whether it's television, a musical is a musical is a musical. So, pretty…

— Alan Menken

Composing easy? I find it easy if - big if - the idea is right, if I have the right collaborator, and…

— Alan Menken

I don't write songs for myself anymore. I only write songs on assignment. It's purely a business, but it is still so…

— Alan Menken