Jule Styne on Inspiration

The music that Jule Styne wrote for Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol is really remarkable. Though Mr. Styne would say that "enthusiasm is hardly inspiration" (in another context, I know), I was so enthusiastic about the music that I have loved since childhood that I was inspired to look Styne up in the IMDB. Like you, I knew he wrote the music for Gypsy, but that was as far as my knowledge went before yesterday. Now I know more. I really appreciate this statement he made that is quoted in the IMDB:

Enthusiasm is hardly inspiration, it's perspiration. I think only amateurs have to be inspired in some ways. You're a professional, you do your job. The inspiration comes later on when you haver already got something and are inspired to make it better, better than it is. When I write a score for a play, just to give you an idea, I write between forty and fifty songs to get sixteen. Sometimes they accept this, and I come back but I change this, and they say,'Gee, this is better', or 'No, we'll keep the original'. But I test. I draw on myself.