Stephen Sondheim quotes - page 2

Musical comedies aren't written, they are rewritten. (Stephen Sondheim)
In the Rodgers and Hammerstein generation, popular hits came out of shows and movies. View quote
Stephen Sondheim
By the time I was 22, I was a professional. A young and flawed professional, but not an amateur. View quote
Stephen Sondheim
Everyone I used to play with has either given up or is dead. View quote
Stephen Sondheim
I played the organ when I went to military school, when I was 10. They had a huge organ, the second-largest pipe organ in New York State. I loved all the buttons and the gadgets. I've always been a gadget man. View quote
Stephen Sondheim
I fell into lyric writing because of music. I backed into it. View quote
Stephen Sondheim
I really don't want to write a score until the whole show is cast and staged. View quote
Stephen Sondheim
A close-up on screen can say all a song can. View quote
Stephen Sondheim
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. View quote
Stephen Sondheim
After the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution, songs became part of the story, as opposed to just entertainments in between comedy scenes. View quote
Stephen Sondheim
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. (Stephen Sondheim)
Gotta watch out for directors. View quote
Stephen Sondheim
So many good songs get written fast, because you know exactly what has to work. View quote
Stephen Sondheim
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. View quote
Stephen Sondheim
Nowadays, there are sometimes more producers than there are people in the cast, because it takes that much money to put a show on. View quote
Stephen Sondheim
My personal life and my artistic life do not interfere with each other. View quote
Stephen Sondheim
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. View quote
Stephen Sondheim
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. View quote
Stephen Sondheim
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. View quote
Stephen Sondheim
There's something inimical about the camera and song. View quote
Stephen Sondheim
When the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you've written. (Stephen Sondheim)
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. View quote
Stephen Sondheim
Every writer I've ever spoken to feels fraudulent in some way or other. View quote
Stephen Sondheim
Generally, the best recording is the original cast, because that's the way the piece grew: integrally, with them. View quote
Stephen Sondheim
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. View quote
Stephen Sondheim