Which writers or artists most influenced your work?
Originally asked
The Paris Review, to novelists and poets, The Art of Fiction
A durable Art of Fiction question asked through named literary influences and artistic models.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Recorded
Andrew Lloyd Webber
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said elsewhere, not written here
Well, I mean, obviously, as I said, Richard Rodgers, very obviously say, composers like Prokofiev, like Gershwin, all of these, the great musical theater writers. I would add, as melodists, I think if you were talking about the great melodists of the 20th century, I would put Paul McCartney in there. I would definitely put Rodgers. I would definitely put Prokofiev. I’d definitely put Gershwin because he died so young, but definitely would put him there. And those, of course, in the theater side of things, I’d definitely put Hal Prince
Academy of Achievement interview, New York City, 13 September 2019
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I realized I took ideas from philosophers like Dan Dennett. I took ideas from evolutionary biologists like John Maynard Smith. I took ideas from people who were trying to implement evolution for things like RNA, so people like Jerry Joyce at Scripps. I took ideas from lots of people who could explain their ideas well, so I’ve been influenced by many. I’ve built my ideas on the contributions of many. And, of course, that’s what evolution does. It mutates and recombines what’s already there. Nothing comes out of nothing, right? It all comes on the back of what was there.
Recorded
Academy of Achievement interview, Pasadena, California, 18 January 2019
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John Lewis
U.S. Representative from Georgia, 1987–2020; Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 1963–1966
Jim Lawson. Jim Lawson was an unbelievable human being. Born in Ohio. He was a pacifist. He studied Gandhi. He was part of the Methodist Student Movement. He lived in India. He became an organizer for FOR, the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
Recorded
Julian Bond, Explorations in Black Leadership interview, Explorations in Black Leadership, University of Virginia
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Lynn Nottage
Playwright; twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Well absolutely Sondheim was an influence, because he was in many ways this door into the world of theater and he is a phenomenal composer. He’s also a phenomenal mentor.
Recorded
Academy of Achievement interview, New York City, 14 September 2019
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Very much, because he’s interested in that same kind of process. Bonnard, Matisse, Indian miniature paintings, which he collected. That’s where the light comes from, a spectral relationship within the painting itself.
Recorded
Academy of Achievement interview, Sacramento, California, 27 May 2011
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Question
What is the best advice you have ever received?
Time & hindsight
Harold Prince went to see it and he wrote me a letter saying don’t be discouraged about this because actually there’s some quite good songs in here. But he also said something which stayed with me all my life, which is that you can’t listen to a musical if you can’t look at it, by which he was actually saying that the designs for Jeeves were absolutely hideous.
Recorded
Academy of Achievement interview, New York City, 13 September 2019
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More on taste & recommendation
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