Stephen Sondheim Quotes
-
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.
-
I was watching him crawl, Back over the wall-! Then bang! Crash! And the lightning flash! And- well, that's another story, Never mind- Anyway.
-
I started listening to classical music when I was in my early teens. Prior to that, I listened to pop records or band records.
-
Pointillism takes emotional images, character, etc., and makes them all come together and make a whole that tells a story.
-
I didn't really want to write just lyrics, but I wanted to meet Leonard Bernstein. Music was always the first reason I was writing songs.
-
In not-for-profit theater, you don't worry so much about how the audience is going to react. You want to make them absorb the piece.
-
I get some flak for and some resistance from colleagues for because I'm interested in storytelling. I mean what I like about songwriting is songs used to tell a story.
-
So many good songs get written fast, because you know exactly what has to work.
-
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.
-
I fell into lyric writing because of music. I backed into it.
-
Bit by bit, putting it together... Piece by piece, only way to make a work of art. Every moment makes a contribution, Every little detail plays a part. Having just the vision's no solution, Everything depends on execution, Putting it together, that's what counts.
-
I'm interested in the theater because I'm interested in communication with audiences. Otherwise I would be in concert music.
-
Writing is a form of mischief.
-
Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.
-
In the Rodgers and Hammerstein generation, popular hits came out of shows and movies.
-
They all deserve to die. Even you, Mrs. Lovett Even I. Because the lives of the wicked should be made brief For the rest of us death would be relief.
-
He came from a rock band and even though he was not a lead singer, I knew he was musical just from that. I also knew that he was intelligent enough from talking to him, that he would not play this part unless he could handle it vocally. I knew he was not about to get up there and have to have his voice dubbed or come off croaking. So Johnny Depp casted Johnny Depp. I trusted him entirely. I knew that he was no fool and he would only do it if he felt he could handle it. I told him to listen to the score carefully and if you can handle it, fine by me, and I was right.
-
Nice is different than good.
-
My personal life and my artistic life do not interfere with each other.
-
I really don't want to write a score until the whole show is cast and staged.
-
I've always preferred actors who sing to singers who act in all the shows I've done.
-
TODD: The history of the world, my love -- LOVETT: Save a lot of graves, Do a lot of relatives favors! TODD: Is those below serving those up above! LOVETT: Ev'rybody shaves, So there should be plenty of flavors! TODD: How gratifying for once to know BOTH: That those above will serve those down below!
-
I don't like the word 'career'. When somebody says to me, 'oh, you've had such a wonderful career', I think, 'career - that's after you're dead.' I just don't think that way.
-
Deciding what is to be sung and what is not to be sung is really what writing a musical is about.