Quotes from Alice Ripley

Making music has saved my life.

I was 14. I went to see a production of 'Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris,' and when they got to that final song, 'If We Only Have Love,' it was like the top of my head had blown off.

Oh my God, I love Max von Essen.

I don't honestly have the time or energy to support anybody else's cause but my own, which is self-expression. So I guess, if I had a cause, it would be education.

I love having a basement.

My mother is always the most vulnerable person in any room, and so I definitely have that part of her inside me.

Norm Lewis, who plays Jake in 'Side Show,' and I had a song together in 'Tommy,' and I understudied Mrs. Walker.

I was always a big fan of 'Pippin' and 'Godspell,' even before I heard 'Meadowlark.'

I was in the original cast of 'Sunset Boulevard.' I played Betty. But I wasn't on the cast album.

'Closure' is the word used for a loss that's not acknowledged - and the habit this causes, physically and mentally, for anybody who is participating in that.

I sometimes write songs on the piano, even though I don't actually play the piano. I always hire someone to play for me whenever I decide to sing a song I have written on the piano. My song 'Rosa' is one.

Nothing is hanging on my walls.

Any kind of grieving that is not allowed causes a break. In our culture, grieving in public is not encouraged, but in other cultures, it is done publicly. Some cultures have walls where people can cry. We don't have that. We have theatre where there's always the chance for you to face things within yourself.

It's nice to be in a smaller room. I like the big arenas as well, but at my core, I'm a live performer, so it's nice to be able to feel the warmth of everybody in the room.

Knowing there is a capable back-up willing to give it a try always makes you feel better.

You've got to chop back the performance like a rose bush. That's when it's beautiful.

When the decades pass and you're working in this business, the audiences get older with you. That's the nice part about it. They're so supportive and so loving.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be an actor in classics like Shaw and Shakespeare and Chekov and Ibsen.

Teachers want to teach you theory, and that's fine, but when it comes to rock and roll, you only need three chords. There's something comforting about that.

'Next To Normal' is rock music. It's a rock opera. That, definitely, has a place in popular music.

If there were a song from 'West Side Story' that I would do, it would be 'Something's Coming,' but in a sense that put it in the right key for me and then do that one.

David Mamet gives me great heart. When I ask myself, 'I don't know if I can do this again,' Mamet would say, 'Oh yes, you can.'

The really good stuff- the 'Hamiltons' - comes out after decades of writing and being committed.

When everything kind of hit the fan, my dad married Jo Anne, and suddenly there were five kids from the Ripleys and five kids from the Doughertys. Then my dad and Joanne had a baby. I usually have to make a diagram.