Cameron Mackintosh quotes:
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I don't like being in debt, and I wouldn't borrow money for anything.
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An old building is like a show. You smell the soul of a building. And the building tells you how to redo it.
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My own tastes happen to be in tune with what the public wants. I think that's the reason my batting average is so high, not because I've discovered some brilliant formula.
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Two of my theatres are 1930s and the other five are by Sprague, the greatest Edwardian architect of the lot. They've needed a lot of work doing to them but they were built very well.
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I had set a goal of being a producer by 25.
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I'm a war baby: I was brought up with rationing, and my parents always had to struggle. I remember when I was sent to boarding school - Prior Park College in Bath - my father was asked how he was going to pay the fees, and he replied: 'In arrears.'
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I don't commit to things unless I have my A-team to do it. And I'm not trying to be cocky, but that shows in my productions. They are top notch!
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I never know what is going to have that 'X' factor and what isn't.
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Darling, when you're as old as I am, you cherish the very few musicals that have come your way that you know are great classics. You become their guardian.
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Sometimes, thinking on your feet can be the most creative. Constrained circumstances can bring the best out of you. Some of the most successful shows come out of shoestring invention.
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My aunt took me to see 'Salad Days' when I was seven. This story of a magic piano that infects everyone who hears it infected me, too. It was a Road to Damascus moment in my life.
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What musicals need is a new me.
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I know I'm in the exceptional position of having money but I didn't have it for many decades.
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Constrained circumstances can bring the best out of you.
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I am in that glorious position where I can redesign and re-package my own work.
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My dream is to be on my boat. Or on an island. Or in my house in the country. That's my dream.
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It horrifies me how much it costs to put on shows now, mainly due to EU regulations. The freedom to be entrepreneurial is no longer there. It's a massive business now.
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I've taken considerable gambles on shows, but they're very considered gambles.
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If there's too much of you around, people can get tired of you.
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I don't watch a lot of television.
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Having a think about whether you can afford 'this' or 'that' is a good discipline to have, to maximise what you can achieve to the highest standard.
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The commercial and subsidised theatre are intrinsically linked. I wouldn't have had the career I have had without the opportunities I had through the subsidised sector. However, I do think, in any walk of life, subsidy for the sake of subsidy is not always healthy.
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I survived because I never took on big responsibilities in my private life. In the early days, I lived on two or three pounds a week and learned to cook - and I'm a good cook - because I had to. Even when I went on holiday, I stayed in other people's houses.
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By the time I was ten, everyone knew I wanted to be a producer. I was a very precocious little boy.
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Audiences aren't going to get rid of me. One thing I can say, with absolute certainty, is that my shows will still be performed when I'm dead, buried and forgotten. They're going to absolutely outlive me, which is a wonderful thing to think about.
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I've never had a very great public life.
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The musical is the one area of the theater that can give you the biggest buzz of all.