I Don't Really Like The WORD 'religion.' To Me, That's Like RULES And Regulations And Paying Money To Send Up PRAYERS. That Kind Of All Weirds Me Out, HONESTLY.

I Don't Recite Prayers As A BLANKET Rule, But Having Said That, I Do Believe That Prayers LIKE The Our FATHER And Hail MARY Are Powerful Prayers.

I REMEMBER One Of My First PRAYERS When I Became A Christian Was Simply, 'God, Provide A Job For Me. I Don't Care How Hard I Have To Work, Just Provide A Job And OPPORTUNITY So That I Can TAKE Care Of My Family.' And You Know, That Was REALLY All I Asked From Him.

Through PRAYERS I GET The STRENGTH To FACE All The DIFFICULTIES.

Too Often The WORD 'prayer' Induces Guilt Because We Don't Do Enough Of It. After All, I've Never Met Anyone Who Said They Pray Too Much! All Of Us FALL Short. And We Often FEEL LIKE Our Prayers Fall Flat.

When WRITING Music For The 'Kaddish,' I Evoked The Prayers That Were Sung In Eastern Galicia, UKRAINE And Romania. I Was Advised By My Late Friend, Boris Carmeli... He Would Sing Me Various Melodies That Were Sung By His Grandfather, Thus They Had To Be At LEAST As Old As The Mid-19th Century.

It's Not EASY To MEASURE The EFFECTS Of PRAYERS.

In My Prayers Every Day, Which Are A COMBINATION Of Hebrew Prayers And SHAKESPEARE And Sondheim LYRICS And Things People Have Said To Me That I've WRITTEN Down And Shoved In My Pocket, I Also Say The Name Of Every Person I've Ever Known Who's Passed On.