Stephen Sondheim Quotes

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Stephen Sondheim

Profession : Composer

Birth : March 22, 1930

My idea of heaven is not writing.

Stephen Sondheim

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.

Stephen Sondheim

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.'

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.

Stephen Sondheim

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.

Stephen Sondheim

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.

Stephen Sondheim

I would have been a geologist.

Stephen Sondheim

After the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution, songs became part of the story, as opposed to just entertainments in between comedy scenes.

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

Generally, the best recording is the original cast, because that's the way the piece grew: integrally, with them.

Stephen Sondheim

I fell into lyric writing because of music. I backed into it.

Stephen Sondheim

So many good songs get written fast, because you know exactly what has to work.

Stephen Sondheim

In the Rodgers and Hammerstein generation, popular hits came out of shows and movies.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Stephen Sondheim

The fact is popular art dates. It grows quaint. How many people feel strongly about Gilbert and Sullivan today compared to those who felt strongly in 1890?

Stephen Sondheim

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.

Stephen Sondheim

When the song is part of the action and working as dialogue, even two minutes is way too long.

Stephen Sondheim