Lin-Manuel Miranda is an American composer, lyricist, singer, actor, producer, and playwright, widely known for creating and starring in the Broadway musicals In the Heights and Hamilton. Profoundly inspirational Lin-Manuel Miranda quotes will challenge the way you think, and help guide you through any life experience.
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Famous Lin-Manuel Miranda Quotes
If Hamilton were on Twitter, he would have been a worse oversharer than me. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
In the best works of fiction, there’s no mustache-twirling villain. I try to write shows where even the bad guy’s got his reasons. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I try to let my decisions be guided not by what I think will succeed or fail, but what I’m going to learn from that process. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
Everyday has the potential to be the greatest day of your life. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I’m the music guy, I get to wear the music hat, but being able to be that guy in the room is a thrill at this level and caliber. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I wouldn’t give a performer something I couldn’t deliver myself. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
Tuesdays and Thursdays, I didn’t do any press, I didn’t do any meetings, I just wrote all day, ’cause I’d meet, via Skype, with the creative team, at five p.m., and then I would have my seven o’clock curtain. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
The problem is I got a lot of brains but no polish. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I have two wonderful, supportive and very practical parents who were like, you’re really talented and really creative. You should be a lawyer because there’s a safe path there. And I knew that I was never going to be a lawyer. And I knew that I wanted to make movies, and I wanted to write shows. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I liked writing the negative ads more than – because it’s more minor chords. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
It’s got to feel, the pulse has to feel like this part of the world, the instrumentation has to be true to that, and so, between him, [composer] Mark Mancina and myself, we really chased that, while serving our story Moana]. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I felt so nourished by the process of making [Moana], of you’re always engaged with other artists from different disciplines, and it’s about bringing your art form to the table. It’s so many art forms mashed together. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I got the job [in Moana project] about six months before we started rehearsals. No, seven and a half months before we started at the Public, and so, it’s been my ocean of calm throughout the Hamilton phenomenon. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lamplighters are the guys who manually turned on all the street lamps in London and turned them off. That was the gig in the 1930s in London. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
The fact that I’m a performer helps me enormously as a lyricist. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I have been working on this movie [Moana] since before Hamilton happened. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I was one of several songwriters I think interviewed [for Moana]. I’m a huge fan of Disney animated movies, and I’ve always wanted to write an animated score since I was a little kid. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
It was a real dream come true just to get the job [in Moana], and yeah, and we sort of got right to work. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
People who don’t like musicals like, ‘why are they singing? Why aren’t they just talking? If you make the lyric feel really conversational, it’s much easier for them to bridge that gap. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
With every word, I drop knowledge. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I’m not trying to make something that is difficult to perform every night. It needs to proceed at the speed of that character’s thought because that’s the only way it’s actable. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I grew up in the time just when cassettes were waning and CDs were growing. And so mix tapes – and not mix CDs – mix tapes were an important part of the friendship and mating rituals of New York adolescents. If you were a girl and I wanted you – to show you I like you, I would make you a 90-minute cassette wherein I would show off my tastes. I would play you a musical theater song next to a hip-hop song next to an oldie next to some pop song you maybe never heard, also subliminally telling you how much I like you with all these songs. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
These New York City streets get colder, I shoulder every burden every disadvantage I’ve learned to manage. I don’t have a gun to brandish. I walk these streets famished. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I loved musicals. I loved being in the school play and being lucky enough to get parts in the school play. But they always took place in some other time and place. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
My power of speech, unimpeachable. Only 19 but my mind is older. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I know the action in the street is excitin’ But Jesus, between all the bleedin’ ‘n fightin’ I’ve been readin’ ‘n writin’. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
We get the job done. So what happens if we win? – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I’m just like my country. I’m young, scrappy and hungry. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
If you think in terms of topping, you’re in the wrong business. You can’t think that way. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I got to holler just to be heard. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I think I started writing because no one had ever told me you can write about the things you know in a musical. They don’t have to come from some far off place. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
Well, hello. My name is Lin. But if you’re dyslexic, call me Nil. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
The theater should always be a safe space. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I want as many people to see the show [Hamilton] in its musical theater form as possible before it’s translated, and whether it’s a good act of translation or a bad act of translation, it’s a leap, and very few stage shows manage the leap successfully. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I feel like style is like accent. You don’t hear it on yourself, and then everyone’s like, man, you got a strong accent. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
The biggest secret weapon we had in regards to really being true to this part of the world, and making sure this part of the world could see themselves in this film [Moana] in a way that felt positive and accurate, was Opetaia, my co-writer, Opetaia Foa’i, who has a great band called Te Vaka and is an amazing musical and cultural ambassador. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
If you know the voice you’re writing for it’s such a shortcut. It’s such a catalyst to creating the kind of energy you want. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
It’s an enormous relief to go to work and be an actor and not be worried about writing. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I read reviews, I’m not going to lie to y’all. Like you know, I’ll read ’em, but then, the next day I’m able to sort of shrug them off. But if something sort of sticks the next day, there’s probably something to it. I just sort of really try to trust my gut on, on all that stuff. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
The reason I make that distinction cassette before CD is you have to listen to it in the order in which I’ve curated it for you. You know, side A to side B is our act break. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
Sebastian, en Español, is a bad ass name. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I probably shouldn’t brag, but dag I amaze and astonish. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I’m a diamond in the rough, a shiny piece of coal trying to reach my goal. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I had friends who only listened to hip-hop. I had friends who only listened to musicals, and I stood proudly in the middle. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I am not throwing away my shot. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
My rhymes are gonna kill, so I suggest you write your will and leave your [expletive] to me. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I think, there are a couple of songs. I’m really proud of How far I’ll Go. I literally locked myself up in my childhood bedroom at my parents’ house to write those lyrics. I wanted to get to my angstiest possible place. So I went method on that. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
My sister is as responsible for anyone for giving me good taste in music. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
No one wants to hear me crooning a ballad. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
You can’t control the success or failure of a thing you work on. You can only control the thing you work on. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I’m past patiently waitin,’ I’m passionately smashin’ every expectation, every action’s an act of creation. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
The distance between where I am and where I want to be seems impossibly large. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I think one of the things that makes theater special is first of all, it’s one of the last places you put your phone away. And second of all, it’s one of the last places where we all have a common experience together. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I think if you want to make a recipe for making a writer, have them feel a little out of place everywhere, have them be an observer kind of all the time. And that’s a great way to make a writer. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
If you’re thinking about the idea in the shower. If you’re thinking about the idea while you’re walking your dog, there’s probably something to it. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I think you balance the things you’ve been dying to do all your life. And the opportunities that come along, that you didn’t maybe think of, that are so amazing, that you’d kick yourself if you didn’t try to be a part of them. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
When you’re dealing with a constant rhythm, no matter how great your lyrics are, if you don’t switch it up, people’s heads are going to start bobbing. And they’re going to stop listening to what you’re saying, so consistently keep the ear fresh and keep the audience surprised. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
Don’t be shocked when your history book mentions me. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
When I get called in for stuff for Hollywood, I get to be the best friend of the Caucasian leadIf I want to play the main guy, I have found, I have to write it. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I got to fall in love. I got to win a war. I got to write words that inspired a nation. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I remind myself Vincent van Gogh died without having sold a single painting. Like, art is not measured by the trappings that people attached to it. It’s the thing itself, and so, as you know, it’s been a dream of mine to write songs for Disney, and so, it’s really exciting to finally hear. It’s two and a half years. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I am the epitome of coolness. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
You know, you’re doing the same show every day, and your inspiration, you have to look no further than the fact that you know people travel across the country to see you. In a lot of cases, this is that audience’s only chance to see the thing, and so, that’s what gets you up in the morning, and that’s what gets you giving your best performance on stage, is the awareness that this audience is ready for it, and here to have an experience, and so in turn are you. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
Ed Koch once said that New York City is where immigrants come to audition for America. That’s what happened to my parents; that’s what happened to me. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I’m not going to hang out with celebrities, I’m not going to parties. I have two songs due for Moana next week, and I’m going to go and spend some time with Maui and Moana in the ocean, in my mind. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
The music you love when you’re a teenager is always going to be the most important to you. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I just remembered when I was an adolescent girl wanting to leave my island and find my calling. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I will lay down my life if it sets us free. – 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
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
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
The musicals that leave us kind of staggering on our feet are the ones that really reach for a lot. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
There’s been lots of theater that uses hip-hop in it, but more often than not, it’s used as a joke – isn’t it hilarious that these characters are rapping. I treat it as a musical form, and a musical form that allows you to pack in a ton of lyric. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
Sometimes a line enters your head, and you’re so grateful for it. You go online to check to see if anyone wrote it before you. You must have stolen it. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
What ‘Twilight Zone’ did was show we all have a great capacity for good and evil. – 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
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 couldn’t possibly write ‘Next to Normal,’ but God, I can weep and watch ‘Next to Normal’ five times. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
‘Rent’ was the show that made me want to write. Or that showed me you’re allowed to write. – 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
The only other thing that’s like video games for me is watching tennis on TV. I can have it on, and there’s a rhythmic quality to it – I can be watching Wimbledon or the U.S. Open and still be working. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I always had an eye toward the stage for the story of Hamilton’s life, but I began with the idea of a concept album, the way Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Evita’ and ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ were albums before they were musicals. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
I kind of need to be ambulatory to write lyrics. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
You know what’s a great way of tricking people into thinking you’re a genius? Write a show about geniuses! – Lin-Manuel Miranda
Biggie and Big Pun were the best storytellers of the ’90s. I would get wrapped up in the narrative of what they were talking about. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
Everything we know about Hamilton, we knew when he was alive, because he told us. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
If there is a Busta Rhymes of musical theater, it probably is Mandy Patinkin. – 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
One of my first favorite books was ‘The 12 Days of Christmas,’ and I would just go up to people and say, ‘I can sing ‘The 12 Days of Christmas,’ and I would make them sit through me reciting it, and I’d go all the way, each time. I’ve always hooked into lyrics. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
What I learned from my go-round with ‘In the Heights’ is that it’s tough to make a movie. In Hollywood, even the people in charge have people in charge. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
‘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 think I’m always subconsciously trying to write the ideal school play. Lots of parts for everybody, great parts for women – don’t forget, more girls try out than boys in the school play; everyone gets to be in the school play. – 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
The only shows I saw as a kid were that holy trinity: ‘Les Miz,’ ‘Cats,’ ‘Phantom.’ – Lin-Manuel Miranda
We love ‘Fiddler.’ We love ‘West Side Story.’ I want to be in that club. I want to be in the club that writes the musical that every high school does. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
Pretty much anything William Shatner is in is great. He’s great at playing that ‘I’m the only one sane in the world’ character. – 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
I like to separate the music- and lyric-writing processes if I can. I’ll sort of noodle around on my keyboard and my computer until I have a beat or a chord progression, I’ll record it as a loop, export it to iTunes, then walk around with the loop and sort of talk to myself in the loop, and that’s how I get the lyrics. – Lin-Manuel Miranda
