Lin-Manuel Miranda Quotes

'Hamilton' is one of the best things I've ever seen on a stage, and for a guy who loves American history, hip-hop and theater, it was pure bliss.

I've always been jealous of rappers, because they can fit so many words into a song and tell a story with lots of details. But when you're a songwriter, you have to fit the words to the melody and you can't fit as much in. I'm just a big fan of storytelling.

I was never just a 'fill in 16 bars on a beat' rapper. I was making real songs from the jump.

I never imagined that Hamilton would be turned into a musical, much less a hip-hop musical. I think I can safely say that that's the last thing I would have expected.

I've memorized 'Hamilton.'

I'm really big into lyrics in my own songs, so I look up to Drake in that aspect.

'Hamilton' is, of course, closely tied to the Obamas because Lin first performed the opening number at a White House poetry jam.

The crafting of lyrics is really a task, and when it comes to street culture, I don't feel like anyone else articulates it better than me.

I must have written 15 lyrics for 'The Lion King,' and only five or six were used. Some were scenes that disappeared, some were earlier versions of songs that didn't work, or else the characters changed.

When I found Freestyle Fellowship, I started getting into the construction of rap. You get better at it the more you do it; you figure out the science and the math behind it.

When you start rhyming, it's hard to find things that rhyme with Yauch, Horovitz and Diamond.

I feel like with a lot of Madlib's beats, they are made for storytelling. I feel like when I'm working on stuff with him, I can really get into the storytelling aspect mode of my flow.

Lyrics are really, really hard, I think, or at least they're really hard for me. Some people can channel lyrics faster. I find them very hard to find, so because of it, they take me a long time, and I really think about them.

As far as rapping goes, as long as you are telling the truth and you have a good flow, then you win.

Eminem has been someone that I've always considered the greatest ever, to ever do it. You know what I mean? In every aspect, the storytelling abilities, lyrical ability, honesty. You can hear it in my music that I'm heavily influenced by that.

When you're looking for good lyrics, you turn to Kendrick Lamar, you turn to J Cole, you turn to Wale, you turn to Chance the Rapper, you turn to Rapsody. You don't turn to Post Malone.

When I saw 'Hamilton,' it changed my life. It's one of the most beautiful things I saw on stage.

Ever since I started writing music, I've wanted to know what the songs are about and to be able to tell stories.

If there's a track that's rhyme friendly, the verse will basically write itself. If the track is less rhyme friendly, you have to put forth a little more effort to get the song out.

When I first started making music, I was pretty drawn to hip-hop beats wrapped together with super-good lyrics. The most important thing in that is wordplay, so that stayed with me when I started writing songs.

Nas' storytelling was just fire.

I think most of the work of songwriting is thinking of great phrases - I'm addicted, always on the hunt for a really great phrase.

While writing a normal song, we just pen four lines and then we have a chorus and some lines again. But rap is about storytelling and requires extra effort to write.

The great thing about 'Hamilton,' for me, is so many people have been exposed to and are more open to hip-hop and certain artists, despite the stigma that had before been attached to it.

What inspires me about rap is that it's written in an almost poetic way. I just think it's so cool.