Lin-Manuel Miranda

Lin-Manuel: (advice to aspiring actors) I would say soak up everything you can. Soak up all of it. I worked on some of the craziest plays you ever saw in your life. Couldn't be more different than In the Heights. Soak up everything you can. You learn just as much from shows you hate as shows you love.

Lin-Manuel: I learned to write music in high school just from music theory classes and piano lessons. And then I sort of came at salsa with a sense of inheritance about it. I was a little bit intimidated by it because it's incredibly complex music. But I also said if I can't write it, then I haven't been f*cking paying attention all my life.

Lin-Manuel: I fell in love with [musicals] at a very young age. I'm not one of these people who likes every musical; I'm very picky. But when a musical is firing on all cylinders, I don't think there's a more moving art form.