Words matter. These are the best Stephen Sondheim Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
When the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you’ve written.
In the Rodgers and Hammerstein generation, popular hits came out of shows and movies.
I prefer neurotic people. I like to hear rumblings beneath the surface.
Generally, the best recording is the original cast, because that’s the way the piece grew: integrally, with them.
The worst thing you can do is censor yourself as the pencil hits the paper. You must not edit until you get it all on paper. If you can put everything down, stream-of-consciousness, you’ll do yourself a service.
Musicals are, by nature, theatrical, meaning poetic, meaning having to move the audience’s imagination and create a suspension of disbelief, by which I mean there’s no fourth wall.
Every time one can write a self-deluded song, you are way ahead of the game, way ahead. Self-delusion is the basis of nearly all the great scenes in all the great plays, from ‘Oedipus’ to ‘Hamlet.’
I was a mathematician by nature, and still am – I just knew I didn’t want to be a mathematician. So I decided not to take any mathematics courses.
All the best performers bring to their role something more, something different than what the author put on paper. That’s what makes theatre live. That’s why it persists.
I’m interested in the theater because I’m interested in communication with audiences. Otherwise I would be in concert music.
I’m always conscious of what I’m writing, conscious of what the actor may ask me. I have a defense for nearly every line in the song.
I was essentially trained by Oscar Hammerstein to think of songs as one-act plays, to move a song from point A to point B dramatically.
My idea of heaven is not writing.
When I was growing up, there was no such thing as Off-Broadway. You either got your show on or you didn’t.
When I’m writing a song, I try to be the character.
Every writer I’ve ever spoken to feels fraudulent in some way or other.
You can’t have personal investors anymore because it’s too expensive, so you have to have corporate investment or a lot of rich people.
Musical comedies aren’t written, they are rewritten.
I fell into lyric writing because of music. I backed into it.
If you force yourself to write away from the piano, you come up with more inventive things. If you’re too good a piano player, as some composers are, the music may become flavorless and glib. And if you’re not a very good pianist, you’re limited to the same patterns.
After the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution, songs became part of the story, as opposed to just entertainments in between comedy scenes.
If people have split views about your work, I think it’s flattering. I’d rather have them feel something about it than dismiss it.
One difference between poetry and lyrics is that lyrics sort of fade into the background. They fade on the page and live on the stage when set to music.
Oscar Hammerstein was a surrogate father during all those many days, and weeks and months when I didn’t see my own father.
When the song is part of the action and working as dialogue, even two minutes is way too long.
My idea of heaven is not writing.
The nice thing about doing a crossword puzzle is, you know there is a solution.
I have, by nature, an analytical mind.
I don’t find my life that interesting. The shows, maybe. But not me.
Math and music are intimately related. Not necessarily on a conscious level, but sure.
A close-up on screen can say all a song can.
My mother wanted me off her hands. She was a working woman. She designed clothes, and she was a celebrity collector. It’s my mother’s ambition to be a celebrity.
The movie adaptations of stage musicals that I’ve seen, without exception, in my opinion don’t work. A lot of people would disagree with me.
I certainly wanted my name in lights. I wanted my name on a marquee. I wanted recognition on Broadway.
Everyone I used to play with has either given up or is dead.
I fell into lyric writing because of music. I backed into it.
After the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution, songs became part of the story, as opposed to just entertainments in between comedy scenes.
I certainly wanted my name in lights. I wanted my name on a marquee. I wanted recognition on Broadway.
There’s something inimical about the camera and song.
I don’t listen to recordings of my songs. I don’t avoid it, I just don’t go out of my way to do it.
Gotta watch out for directors.
Nowadays, there are sometimes more producers than there are people in the cast, because it takes that much money to put a show on.
The dumbing down of the country reflects itself on Broadway. The shows get dumber, and the public gets used to them.
By the time I was 22, I was a professional. A young and flawed professional, but not an amateur.
When you know your cast well and their strengths and weaknesses, you can start writing for them, just the way Shakespeare wrote for his actors.
On stage, generally speaking, the story is stopped or held back by songs, because that’s the convention. Audiences enjoy the song and the singer, that’s the point.
The movie adaptations of stage musicals that I’ve seen, without exception, in my opinion don’t work. A lot of people would disagree with me.
Musicals are plays, but the last collaborator is your audience, so you’ve got to wait ’til the last collaborator comes in before you can complete the collaboration.
I really don’t want to write a score until the whole show is cast and staged.
I have, by nature, an analytical mind.
The nice thing about doing a crossword puzzle is, you know there is a solution.
I was essentially trained by Oscar Hammerstein to think of songs as one-act plays, to move a song from point A to point B dramatically.
One of the hardest things about writing lyrics is to make the lyrics sit on the music in such a way that you’re not aware there was a writer there.
My mother wanted me off her hands. She was a working woman. She designed clothes, and she was a celebrity collector. It’s my mother’s ambition to be a celebrity.
I chose and my world was shaken. So what? The choice may have been mistaken; the choosing was not. You have to move on.
I don’t listen to recordings of my songs. I don’t avoid it, I just don’t go out of my way to do it.
I firmly believe lyrics have to breathe and give the audience’s ear a chance to understand what’s going on. Particularly in the theater, where you have costume, story, acting, orchestra.
So many good songs get written fast, because you know exactly what has to work.
The more restrictions you have, the easier anything is to write.
Everyone I used to play with has either given up or is dead.
So many good songs get written fast, because you know exactly what has to work.
Everybody faces a blank piece of paper, no matter what they’ve written or painted or composed before. I can’t imagine approaching every single new project with-without doubt.
Nice is different than good.
Musical comedies aren’t written, they are rewritten.
Lyrics have to be underwritten. That’s why poets generally make poor lyric writers because the language is too rich. You get drowned in it.
There’s something inimical about the camera and song.
