Idina Menzel Quotes

1. Can I have a weekend? I would like to spend Saturday evening with Maureen. I would like going out with her, hanging out with her friends, saying whatever I want to say, and seeing one of her performances. Sunday I would spend with Elphaba. I would take it easy, wake up late, learn some magic spells, and go on a ride with her on her broom. I would like to interview her myself too.  


2. My mom sends me these Hallmark cards and she writes in them: "Honey, don't worry. It is all going to work out okay. Your voice makes people's hearts soar on eagles' wings." She just wrote me one like two weeks ago. I'm not even kidding. I thought, oh my God, Mom is right. I, I am, I am special. People are standing up, no body ever gets a standing ovation during dinner. I'm going to be somebody!

3. For me, "Rent" was all about coming out of myself, finding out who I was, learning the power I could have as a performer.

4. Anyway, I like playing messed up people who are broad and a little unbalanced.

5. I would love to work with Matt Damon.

6. It's okay to to be who you are, and it's okay to be figuring it out.

7. on her courtship with her husband, Taye Diggs, who she met through the musical "Rent") Everyone got really close, but Taye and I especially became close friends. And then, one night, we went to the movies, and I think we saw "Twister" (1996), and he held my hand. And there it was!

8. I always like to sing barefoot, but when I first started doing these dates with the symphonies, I of course thought I should clean up my act, being a Jewish girl from Long Island with a little bit of a trucker mouth. So I wore a gown and some high heels.






9. My younger sister had kids before I did, and managed to earn a master's degree while raising them as a single parent. Now she's a brilliant second-grade teacher. I'm in awe of her ability to juggle everything and still be a great mother.

10. I try to be very autobiographical in my writing. I find that I get the best response to my music when I've been specific about my own life. If I try to skirt around issues and get too poetic, it gets too abstract and people can't relate. I try to be truthful about my life. I don't feel that I'm necessarily some incredibly profound songwriter, but I do have a voice that can be powerful and can make people feel something. I am not trying to impress people with esoteric language and ideas, I want to relate to them and their humanity and speak to someplace inside them. I struggle with my own spirituality in my life. I question my own beliefs and that comes across lyrically. I also sing about my personality flaws such as being an unopinionated person or a waiverer.

11. I have a wide spectrum, a wide demographic. I have the young girls, I have the gay community, I have many regular theatergoers. I do feel a tremendous responsibility and pride to be a role model for some of these young people.

12. I'd love to open a camp focusing on the arts accessible to kids from all income brackets.

13. I made a good living for a teenager. And I had to learn all different kinds of music - jazz, swing, Motown, pop - and that inspired what kind of music I started to write.

14. Growing up I studied classically and did lots of shows in school.

15. I love working with a cast and a group of people every day, which is different than recording because you're usually pretty isolated and alone. They serve as a good balance for each other.




16. I'm a mom - I'm lucky if I get to shower in the morning. Luckily, nail polish stays on my toes. I've been so bad on the upkeep, though.

17. I know I'm known for singing some of those high notes, but that's really not what giving someone goosebumps is all about. It's about really trying to find what makes you unique.

18. I would love to play "Funny Girl" or "Evita," but I idolize the women who have played those parts. I don't know if there needs to be another version of those shows.

19. I'm a decent tennis player. Good backhand.

20. (when asked what she remembers the most from the night she won the Tony) Honestly, I remember most the look on my husband's face. The other thing I remember is when they were reading off the (nominees') names and they read Donna (Donna Murphy)'s name, I was smiling, and he leaned over into my ear and he said: "If they don't read your name, the smile you have on your face now is perfect for when the camera hits you. Just keep that smile, it looks very good." And I looked at him and I was like: "Like this?" and he was like: "Yeah, just keep that if you don't win".

21. I think that if you're doing a new musical, you want to have the opportunity to experiment and try things without the whole city of critics looking over your shoulder.


22. I always use my husband's cocoa butter stuff. He has amazing skin!

23. I sing in many different colors and, hopefully, they add up to a great performance that, after you leave the theater, makes you feel like I've really shared something of myself.

24. I'm trying to focus on original material. That is what I've had my luck with.

25. I started working professionally as soon as I could, doing weddings and things like that in high school, while everyone else was having keg parties. I just felt destined to do it and really committed and driven; it was something that just felt right all my life.

26. A lot of my fans are young and hip and enjoy my pop album and know the lyrics to those songs as well, which is a real compliment to me.

27. We have this strength inside of us and yet we are taught to always sort of keep it down. If we're too big or too angry or too bold or too beautiful or too talented, it can scare people. It might scare other women, it might scare men, whatever it is. I sort of found in my life that I've taken a step back and made myself smaller in order to try to fit in. And that hasn't worked. And we have to learn to kind of embrace what makes us unique, and embrace our strength and then if people don't like it, f**k it. 

28. I wish I had read more and majored in literature rather than theatre. I think I would have been a better artist for it. I am trying to play catch-up now.

29. The first album I ever owned was "A Star is Born."

30. I just enjoy being onstage and relating to the audience.

31. Sometimes you don't know how you're going to make it through and you need some twizzlers.

32. I used to take 40 minutes to warm up before going on stage. If you want to spend time with your child as well as having a career, you have to get up there even if your head's a mess. It's made me more relaxed, and I'm having some of my best shows.


33. It's been a dream of mine to run my own summer camp. I went to one as a kid, and I put on productions, and got lots of confidence.

34. I'd been a wedding singer through college, but after a few years of doing my best renditions of jazz standards to clinking glasses and the sound of forks on salad, I thought: "Oh God, if this is all I do, I'll never be able to live with myself."

35. As a mom, I don't have much time for beauty.

36. I've been singing since I was born. It's something I do everywhere I go. In the shower, walking down the street. I don't need any impetus to do it. I just sing.

37. The intensity of being in front of all these incredible musicians and tremendous conductors in these elaborate halls can be overwhelming.




38. Motherhood has helped me to stop overanalyzing things. It's been liberating because I used to be somewhat neurotic. I attribute that to having something bigger than myself.

39. I like to originate new roles and characters for musical theater.

40. (on the international "Rent" craze) It's hard to absorb and to allow all that attention and accolades for "Rent" because the rest of the country doesn't know who we are. Once I walk out of the door of "Rent", and I'm on the subway, it doesn't matter. It's an exaggerated sense of fame.

41. My biggest project right now is trying to be a really great mom and learning how to balance family and career. I'm just trying to spend as much time with my family as I can.


42. The most successful people are so original.

43. (on singing "Seasons on Love" in the film version of the musical) I haven't been on stage singing that song since back in the day, so when we shot it, it was like muscle memory. As soon as we were on that stage listening to that music, it brought back everything.

44. I think sometimes the higher road is the tougher one. You have to be true to yourself, which sounds like a load of crap. People have to embrace their own individuality and surround themselves with good friends and family.

45. Things happen for a reason, and in their own time.

46. People have these incredible expectations. So instead of being inspired by, say, Joni Mitchell's music, I look at it and say to myself: "I'm going to quit - why would I think of writing or performing after listening to that?"

47. As I get older, I realize all I've done is sing and act and hone those skills.

48. There are lots of things I'm acquainting myself with now to be a more well-rounded person.

49. I would like to get another job in London or tour there. I miss my friends.


50. Things happen for a reason, and in their own time.

51. Everybody thinks it's going to be so glamorous, so cool, you're on "Glee," you know, a hit show or whatever.

52. (reflecting on the impact "Rent" and Jonathan Larson have had on her life) It has always been the strangest experience. Our lives were all transformed in so many wonderful ways, but Jonathan wasn't around for any of it. That always grounded me and gave me a sense of perspective. Whenever I'm too caught up in myself or in something superficial, I remind myself that it's because of Jonathan Larson that I am where I am today.

53. They're always so serious, the orchestras, you know? It's always a fun contrast of that song and the genre of music. And me.

54. Be yourself. I know that sounds cliche, but we all have seriously quirky things about us that may make us feel like an outsider or different, but those are the things to really celebrate. They're what make us unique.

55. I will never leave the theater. My heart is there and I love being on stage eight times a week.

56. Believe me, I don't take that lightly. To have struck gold twice with "Rent" and "Wicked." I know it's rare and I'm very lucky to have that kind of phenomenon in my life. They're not just great shows, they're shows that resonate with young audiences.


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