Stephen Sondheim Quotes
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I do not hope for what I cannot have! I do not cling to things I cannot keep!
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The art of making art, is putting it together.
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Nowadays, there are sometimes more producers than there are people in the cast, because it takes that much money to put a show on.
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Generally, the best recording is the original cast, because that's the way the piece grew: integrally, with them.
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Making lyrics feel natural, sit on music in such a way that you dont feel the effort of the author, so that they shine and bubble and rise and fall, is very, very hard to do. Whereas you can sit at the piano and just play and feel youre making art.
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A song is such a short form ... that 'the slightest flaw seems like a mountain.' And so every song needs to be revised 'til it's close to perfection... But achieving perfection takes a lot of energy.
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Work is what you do for others, liebchen. Art is what you do for yourself.
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Ah, but if you have no expectations, You can never have a disappointment.
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Stay a child while you can be a child.
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My main goal is to tell a story.
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What justifies a character singing one idea for 3 minutes on the screen? I get impatient and want the story to carry on. I don't get impatient in the theatre.
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The concerts you enjoy together/ Neighbors you annoy together/ Children you destroy together,/ That keep marriage in tact.
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Tonight, tonight, won't be just any night. Tonight there will be no morning star.
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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.
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Music straightjackets a poem and prevents it from breathing on its own, whereas it liberates a lyric. Poetry doesn't need music; lyrics do.
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Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.
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Gotta watch out for directors.
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Music is structure out of Chaos
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Hit songs did not come out of musicals. Pop-rock was creating the hits. There were very few songs that made the charts out of any Broadway musical.
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A close-up on screen can say all a song can.
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The truth is that I don't like rehearsals. I get embarrassed hearing my own work. I assume that the cast is embarrassed to sing the stuff.
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Musicals are so expensive to put on the stage that you have to have the backing of a corporate, you have to have Universal Studios or Disney or somebody to put in the money.
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The only reason to write is from love.
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The more you cling to things, The more you love them, The more the pain you suffer, When they're taken from you.