Lin-Manuel Miranda Quotes

You really have to soak up the culture of the people to get it right. If you're making a fiction film, it's entertainment, but you want it to be as real as possible.

I want authenticity. And rarely do actors - more specifically, black actors - get a chance to be authentic on film and television.

I find it really difficult when you make a movie where it is set in Russia and everyone speaks in English. It drives me crazy.

I want to watch telly that reflects the world I see.

If you are playing a Hispanic character who has to speak in dialect or in an accent, nail that dialect or accent. When I hear a character that's supposed to be Cuban speaking with a Mexican accent or vice versa, it grates on me and immediately pulls me out of the story.

The truth, the real history, is way more interesting and representative of what America actually is.

People want you to be the ambassador of everything. This happens to me especially when I go to Europe. I have to be the ambassador of everything. I learned this from Elena Poniatowska - intelligent woman, great lady, one of my heroes, one of my spiritual mentors, I love her. Someone is in this big museum and they ask her, "Elenita, what do you think about Mexican women . . ." And she says, "I haven't a clue!"

I don't think people are going to come down to Texas and see every person riding in a candy car or every person sipping syrup. But, for the most part, people got a lot of the stuff right, talking about the screwed music scene.

Don't ever feel that you have to hide who you are. Nothing good ever comes from keeping secrets like that.

Truth is the band of union and the basis of human happiness. Without this virtue there is no reliance upon language, no confidence in friendship, no security in promises and oaths.

I love the idea of people being themselves in films.

The reason I trust so much is that I don't feel like I have anything to hide. If somebody betrays that trust, it could never be so bad, because I don't keep any secrets.

The secret to beauty is simple - be who you are.

I decided to build up my band in Buffalo because Buffalo was where I had originally built up my own musical strength.

Whatever you do, the only secret is to believe in it and satisfy yourself. Don't do it for anyone else.

I find it terribly distracting in movies when people do accents, I must say, unless it's terribly serious and the story is rooted in South Africa and you're doing a South African accent. But in period movies I think nothing can be more distracting than people doing accents.

Absolutely. Slade! A band that would never bend over.

I'm not trying to explain other cultures, or to give a fair and balanced account of a country, or the top ten things you need to know. I'm not trying to spread world peace and understanding. I'm not an advocate or an activist or an educator or a journalist. I'm out there trying to tell stories the best I can.

How easy it must be when you had no secrets from the person you lived with." - Eclipse, page 208

It's no secret that I am not afraid to shine bright and be festive, and I like to encourage that in others.

One of my secret instructions to myself as a poet is "Whatever you do, don't be boring."

I think I'll be Scottish in every movie I write. They always try to talk me out of it, but Woody Allen is always a nebbish New Yorker. Why shouldn't I be a goofy Glaswegian?

I get more respect from rap artists than I do from my own industry. I don't always write the kind of music that country executives want. Rappers are like that too .. my words come from the street, and their words come from the street. That slicked-up pop stuff doesn't come from the street, it's all pre-fab.

I thought about what I wanted to do besides playing violin and singing backup in a band. Don't get me wrong, playing and singing in That Dog was really fun, but I wanted to work on other musical projects and sing more. So I started a vocal project, i.e. Imaginaryland.

Blackberry Smoke is the real deal!