Neil Meron Quotations

The Oscars is a sport. There's the excitement of watching something live, as it happens.

It's a very tough job to host a show and a very tough job to produce a show, and you're in a no-win position.

What the Toronto festival premiere did was to reinforce why we wanted to do this. People approached us and said they had no idea how talented Liza was. In the past few years, her skills have been too obscured by the tabloid headlines. It is fantastic to see her being celebrated for what she should be celebrated for.

Miramax wanted the buzz to spread, but slowly, so people would be clamoring for it, ... Chicago.

One of the most exciting things to do as producers is be able to offer life-changing roles to new actors and Hairspray has presented us with an amazing opportunity to create new stars.

Liza is unique and nobody does what she does.

We were never really able to crack the script, and we finally realized it was more important not to make the movie if it wasn't right.

We were looking for the perfect vehicle to re-team. 'Hairspray' presented us with a wonderful opportunity to collaborate once again with our multi-talented friend.

The passion here is really for Liza. Because of everything she has been through, people have forgotten Liza the artist.

Vindication? Oh, my God, absolutely. When you're attacked mercilessly for illogical and unpatriotic reasons, to be honored by Emmy voters in this way is just phenomenal.

Bob Fosse only directed five films in his career, and we consider this his lost sixth film.

During the Vietnam War era people were concerned about what was going on economically in their lives, and film studios were worried about what was going on with the box office,

It was all very strategic. Miramax wanted the buzz to spread, but slowly, so people would be clamoring for it.

They tried to sell the movie by its story. All the TV spots and trailers were story-driven, because many people still think musicals don't have serious plots.

It was produced with very deep insight into the life of this performer. It?s the right tribute to who Liza is. People need to focus on the talent, not the tabloid headlines.

It's long been a desire of ours to work with John Travolta and to have the opportunity to produce his return to movie musicals after three decades. It's a dream come true. This is our dream cast for the film, and bringing Travolta back into a musical after 30 years is so gratifying.

Then people started to point fingers. They didn't say nobody wants to see bad movies. Instead, they said nobody wants to see movie musicals.