Rupert Holmes Quotations

I always try to keep in mind that while the characters in a farce may find themselves in outrageous dilemmas, and may behave in a way that the audience finds amusing, the characters themselves don't have the consolation of knowing they're in a comedy.

Having in my life been bitten by the jaws of both victory and defeat, I must rush to add that success is to failure as butter pecan ice cream is to death.

I type even faster than I talk. I'm very proud of that. I type so fast. And I have to because the characters are living in real time and I've got to keep up with them. It's a miracle they even give me a royalty.

The truth is, I initially became a singer-songwriter while still in my teens because it was the only way to guarantee that somebody on earth would sing the songs I was writing. Since then, I've performed just about everywhere: rock clubs, concerts halls, arenas, TV.

But thankfully, my first album, 'Wide Screen,' was sort of a critics' darling - everyone raved about it, but no one bought it. They only manufactured 10,000 copies; I wasn't even in the running for failure!

In all my years of performing, no audience member has ever actually assaulted me. I consider this to be the singular triumph of my performing career.

I've tried in my career to do most everything, because it all intrigues me. And I've found the first time I work in a new form, I discover all the things that make that an exciting medium. I've been very busy most of my career. I've had very few vacations.

A lot of my early career, I wrote story songs that had narratives, that had plots.

I didn't want much. I wanted much more. In fact, I wanted everything.

I first had the thought about making a musical of 'Edwin Drood' as far back as 1971.

I think writing for a world one has invented can be infinitely more interesting than writing for the world we've all inherited.

As much as the mystery element is all a lot of fun, when you do go to 'Edwin Drood,' you're going to a theatre to see a show about going to a theatre and what that relationship between actors and audiences has been for years.

I grew up watching Burns and Allen on TV. They did some amazing things on the TV show, they did surreal things. Gracie would be conspiring with her neighbor Blanche to put something over on George.

I'd been a cult singer-songwriter generally well-regarded by some of the better vocalists and journalists of the seventies. Suddenly, a mass audience perceived me as a troubadour who'd dedicated his life to extolling the virtues of pineapple-based beverages.

For me, the most memorable adventures are still the perils that we face daily in life and love, from the mundane to the meaningful. Where the comedy is often at our own expense, but where the drama, even if painful, reminds us that we are living and feeling here in the real time, with the ever-recurring possibility that this latest chapter will end with new understanding, hope and perhaps even happiness.

Kevin was very nice at the Q&A after the movie. He told the audience to go and get the book,

I was a purported composer with some self-taught notions about how to orchestrate for cinematic instrumentation, but no one was exactly knocking at my door. If you'd seen the apartment I was subletting at the time, you wouldn't have knocked at my door either.

When you write songs for the theatre-particularly if you are also the author of the libretto-you can create any world you want. And then you get to write the songs that people who live in that world would sing.

To my knowledge, there's never been a duo of a brash American and a polite Brit and it's kind of an interesting dynamic for a comedy team, ... I think Colin and Kevin could always fall back on that if they have to.

I've applied to the humor commission for a license to have humor in the book. I haven't been given permission so far. I'm awaiting their verdict.

I once had a small role in one of my own plays, a thriller which happened to become a big hit on the West Coast. Its run was extended month after month and thus for over a year I found myself living the life of a stage actor: eight shows a week, with only one day off, a day dedicated solely to recovering from the five-show weekend I'd just turned in.

He read it in a ring binder, ... He said he thought the setting was fascinating, but he also liked the co-dependencies of the characters.

But thankfully, my first album, Wide Screen, was sort of a critics darling - everyone raved about it, but no one bought it. They only manufactured 10,000 copies; I wasnt even in the running for failure!

Kipling said that Success and Failure are both imposters, and we should all listen to Kipling, if only because none of us are likely to know anybody else named Rudyard. But having been bitten in my life by the jaws of both victory and defeat, I must rush to add that success is to failure as butter pecan ice cream is to death.

Yes, I like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain. I'm not much into health food, I am into Champagne.

I was tired of my lady, we'd been together too long, like a worn-out recording of a favorite song.

If you like making love at midnight in the dunes of the cape, you're the love that I've looked for, come with me and escape.

I don't want to own her, but I can't let her have it both ways. There is one too many of us.

Every songwriter lives to have at least one song that a cab driver who asks 'You write anything I know?' will recognize.