Sondheim Quotes

Everyone would like to be on Broadway, cause if a show works, you make a great deal of money and it allows you to write other shows. ~ Stephen Sondheim

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! ~ Stephen Sondheim

I started listening to classical music when I was in my early teens. Prior to that, I listened to pop records or band records. ~ Stephen Sondheim

You move just a finger, say the slightest word, something's bound to linger-be heard. ~ Stephen Sondheim

I am writing better Stephen Sondheim songs than even Stephen Sondheim is writing. ~ Pete Townshend

It's age. It's a diminution of energy and the worry that there are no new ideas. It's an increasing lack of confidence. I'm not the only one. I've checked with other people. ~ Stephen Sondheim

Lemuel Ayers had had a huge success producing and designing Kiss Me, Kate. He wanted to produce this as a musical. I got the job. It was a professional score. ~ 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

Must it all be either less or more, Either plain or grand? ~ James Lapine Stephen Sondheim

Let Pirelli's / Miracle Elixir / Activate your roots, sir ...
Keep it off your boots, sir- / Eats right through.
Yes, get Pirelli's! / Use a bottle of it! / Ladies seem to love it ...
Flies do, too! ~ Stephen Sondheim

The difference between a cow and a bean is a bean can begin an adventure. ~ Stephen Sondheim

I like murder mysteries, the Agatha Christie kinds of things where you know that it's all going to be neatly wound up at the end. ~ Stephen Sondheim

You get used to the exact amount of space between lines. You write a word and then you write an alternate word over it. You want enough room so you can read it, so the lines can't be too close. ~ Stephen Sondheim

It should be interesting to see two entirely different ways to treat a story, geared for two entirely different kinds of audience. ~ Stephen Sondheim

Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos. ~ Stephen Sondheim

I'll be geeky right now too, because I love Sondheim. Anything he does I had a blast, because every time I do a show of his, I learn something about myself because he's philosophical. During that show, the cast was incredible Hugh and Dan Levine (who I played opposite of), all of us clicked and I love the show. ~ Kendra Kassebaum

I think it's probably, musically, probably the most sophisticated. ("The Woman in White") There's a lot more daring harmony in it than in some of my pieces ... If you know what you want to do, as I always loved musicals, and then to have been lucky enough to be successful with them, I think that's all you can ask, isn't it? ... Sondheim is absolutely wonderful and Alan Jay Lerner was wonderful. ~ Andrew Lloyd Webber

Puzzles are like songs - A good puzzle can give you all the pleasure of being duped that a mystery story can. It has surface innocence, surprise, the revelation of a concealed meaning, and the catharsis of solution. ~ Stephen Sondheim

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. ~ Stephen Sondheim

Slotted spoons don't hold much soup... ~ Stephen Sondheim

My main goal is to tell a story. ~ Stephen Sondheim

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. ~ Stephen Sondheim

Into the woods you go again You have to every now and then Into the woods, no telling when Be ready for the journey Into the woods, each time you go There's more to learn of what you know. ~ Stephen Sondheim

Sometimes people leave you halfway through the wood. Others may decieve you - you decide what's good. You decide alone, but no one is alone.
People make mistakes. Fathers, mothers, people make mistakes, holding to their own, thinking they're alone. Honor their mistakes. Fight for their mistakes.
Witches can be right. Giants can be good. You decide what's right. You decide what's good. ~ Stephen Sondheim

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. ~ Stephen Sondheim

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. ~ Stephen Sondheim

Everything depends upon execution; having just a vision is no solution. ~ Stephen Sondheim

A folktale without a moral is merely a whimsy. ~ Stephen Sondheim

I fell into lyric writing because of music. I backed into it. ~ Stephen Sondheim

No one has ever loved me
As deeply as you.
No one has truly shown me
What love could be like until now:
Not pretty or safe or easy
But more than I ever knew.
Love within reason -
That isn't love.
And I've learned that from you.. ~ Stephen Sondheim

I'm sure many writers have these strange, tiny little habits. ~ Stephen Sondheim

Dreams are a sweet mistake All dreamers must awake.. On then with the dance No backward glance Or my heart will break Never look back NEVER LOOK BACK ... Follies ~ Stephen Sondheim

God, it's hot up here

Well, there are worse things
Than staring at the water on a Sunday
There are worse things
Than staring at the water
As you're posing for a picture
Being painted by your lover
In the middle of the summer
On an island in the river on a Sunday ~ Sondheim Stephen

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

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. ~ Stephen Sondheim

Having just the vision's no solution, everything depends on execution ~ Stephen Sondheim

In my prayers every day, which are a combination of Hebrew prayers and Shakespeare and Sondheim lyrics and things people have said to me that I've written down and shoved in my pocket, I also say the name of every person I've ever known who's passed on. ~ Mandy Patinkin

It's not so hard to be married, I've done it three or four times. ~ Stephen Sondheim

If I could play any role in any musical, it would be Desiree in 'A Little Night Music' - Oh my, it is perfection. The character gets to be funny, beautiful, sexy and smart all at the same time and have two men fighting over her. The show is Stephen Sondheim at his absolute best ... need I say more? ~ Nancy Allen

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

Music is structure out of Chaos ~ Stephen Sondheim

The man i'll never be,
Who remembers him? ~ Stephen Sondheim

Oh if life were made of moments Even now and then a bad one
! But if life were only moments, Then you'd never know you had one. ~ Stephen Sondheim

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

I think 'lunch' is one of the funniest words in the world. ~ Stephen Sondheim

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

When I'm writing a song, I try to be the character. ~ Stephen Sondheim

First take a play that you like and musicalize it. Then take a play that you like but you feel has flaws and try to improve them, and musicalize it," Sondheim recalled him saying. "Then he said, 'Take something that is not a play but that somebody else has written, a novel or a short story, so that you don't have to invent the characters or plot, and musicalize that, make it into a play. Dramatize it. And then finally write an original, your own story, and dramatize that. ~ Meryle Secrest

Into the Woods, then Out of the Woods..and home before dark! ~ Stephen Sondheim

Into the woods
you have to grope,
But that's the way you learn to cope.
Into the woods to find there's hope
Of getting through the journey. ~ Stephen Sondheim

Loving you is not a choice,
It's who I am.
Loving you is not a choice
And not much reason to rejoice,
But it gives me purpose
Gives me voice to say to the world:
This is why I live
You are why I live.
Loving you is why I do
The things I do
Loving you is not in my control.
But loving you, I have a goal
For what's left of my life ...
I would live,
And I would die for you. ~ 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 last collaborator is your audience ... when the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you've written. Things that seem to work well
work in a sense of carry the story forward and be integral to the piece
suddenly become a little less relevant or a little less functional or a little overlong or a little overweight or a little whatever. And so you start reshaping from an audience. ~ Stephen Sondheim

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. ~ Stephen Sondheim

In many ways, I think I'm a good person for it. I mean, I'm not a musical theater dude. Or rather, I don't watch everything, and love everything, and have every album. The ones that I love - like I've seen The Wizard of Oz a hundred times. West Side Story I love. I love Singing in the Rain, I love White Christmas. I love the Dennis Potter ones like Singing Detective and Pennies from Heaven. I love Sondheim. ~ James Ponsoldt

I liked my father a lot, but I didn't see him very often because my mother was bitter about him. He remarried, and I used to have to sneak off to see him. ~ Stephen Sondheim

My parents weren't around much, but I assumed everybody's family was the same. I didn't know people had mummies and daddies who would give them milk and cookies after school. I just thought everybody lived on Central Park West and they had a nanny to take care of them. ~ Stephen Sondheim

If you're dealing with a musical in which you're trying to tell a story, it's got to sound like speech. At the same time it's got to be a song. ~ Stephen Sondheim

My parents got divorced and military school gave me a structure. A lot of kids my age were children of divorced parents. They didn't know what to do with the kids. ~ Stephen Sondheim

They hear drums, we hear music. ~ Stephen Sondheim

I think one of my favorite productions ever was Sondheim's 'Assassins' at the Roundabout in 2004. Beyond brilliant. ~ Robert Lopez

I have successfully avoided enjoying opera all my life.
-quoted in Entertainment Weeky, http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20548... ~ Stephen Sondheim

Friendship, obligation and greed are not good enough reasons to write anything. ~ Stephen Sondheim

Almost all the shows I've been connected with have been extremely well cast. They're playing the show, not just doing the songs. ~ Stephen Sondheim

The concerts you enjoy together/ Neighbors you annoy together/ Children you destroy together,/ That keep marriage in tact. ~ Stephen Sondheim

How many times do you get to be 35?
Eleven ~ 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

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. ~ Stephen Sondheim

To wish and wait From day to day Will never keep The wolves away. ~ Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Sondheim told me that Oscar Hammerstein believed everything that he wrote. So there's great truth in the songs, and that's what was so wonderful to find. ~ Bernadette Peters

Stephen Sondheim said : If you know where you're going, you've gone. Move on. ~ Jennifer Crusie

Stay a child while you can be a child. ~ Stephen Sondheim

Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor. ~ Stephen Sondheim

There's a hole in the world like a great black pit
and the vermin of the world inhabit it
and its morals aren't worth what a pig could spit
and it goes by the name of London.
At the top of the hole sit the privileged few
Making mock of the vermin in the lonely zoo
turning beauty to filth and greed ...
I too have sailed the world and seen its wonders,
for the cruelty of men is as wonderous as Peru
but there's no place like London! ~ Stephen Sondheim

I'm interested in the theater because I'm interested in communication with audiences. Otherwise I would be in concert music. ~ Stephen Sondheim

I'm a devotee of Stephen Sondheim. I think he's a genius. ~ Kenneth Branagh

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

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. ~ 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. ~ Stephen Sondheim

As Sondheim said, Nice is different than good. Do you need to do whatever you're told to be a nice person? Maybe. Do you need to do whatever you're told to be a good person? Of course not! Man, woman, personal, professional - some people have a skill for persuading you the best thing you can be is obedient. A ~ Anna Kendrick

I adore the work of Stephen Sondheim. I like musicales in general. They make surprisingly great running tapes. ~ Laura Lippman

Am I not sensitive, clever, well-mannered, considerate, passionate, charming, as kind as I'm handsome and heir to a throne? ~ Stephen Sondheim

I really don't want to write a score until the whole show is cast and staged. ~ Stephen Sondheim

Sometimes colleagues in performance are absolutely astonishing. ~ Stephen Sondheim

There was a barber and his wife
and she was beautiful...
a foolish barber and his wife.
She was his reason for his life...
and she was beautiful, and she was virtuous.
And he was naive.
There was another man who saw
that she was beautiful...
A biased vulture of the law
who, with a gesture of his claw
removed the barber from his plate!
And there was nothing but to wait!
And she would fall!
So soft!
So young!
So lost and oh so beautiful!

Antony (spoken)

The lady, sir...did she succumb?

Sweeney Todd (sung)

Ah, that was many years ago...
I doubt if anyone would know.
(spoken)
Now leave me, Antony.
There is somewhere I must go,
something i must find out.
Now, and alone.

Antony (spoken)

But surely we will meet again before I am off to Plymouth?

Sweeney Todd (spoken)

If you want you may well find me around Fleet Street. I wouldn't wander.
(sung)
There's a hole in the world like a great black pit
and it's filled with people who are filled with shit!
And the vermin of the world inhabit it! ~ Stephen Sondheim

The nice thing about doing a crossword puzzle is, you know there is a solution. ~ Stephen Sondheim

Every single song I've ever written is sung by a character created by somebody else. Some might have a jaundiced view of love, some don't. But none of these songs is me singing - not a single one. ~ Stephen Sondheim

'Sweeney Todd' is my favorite Sondheim musical. ~ Lesley Nicol

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. ~ Stephen Sondheim

Math and music are intimately related. Not necessarily on a conscious level, but sure. ~ Stephen Sondheim

Some of us don't like the way you've been telling it. ~ Stephen Sondheim

I couldn't live without the genius of Stephen Sondheim, be it not just West Side Story,but Follies,Company,Sweeney Todd,Passion.You can go on and on. ~ Cornel West

Everyone tells tiny lies, what's important really is the size. ~ Stephen Sondheim

Over a period of time it's been driven home to me that I'm not going to be the most popular writer in the world, so I'm always happy when anything in any way is accepted. ~ Stephen Sondheim

Content dictates form and style. ~ Stephen Sondheim

I'm very opinionated about movie musicals when they're adapted from live shows. You'll sit still for a three-minute song in a theater. But in movies, a glance from someone's eyes will tell you the whole story in a few seconds. ~ Stephen Sondheim

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. ~ Stephen Sondheim

I think Stephen Sondheim is a - and I hardly ever use this word - but this is as close as it gets to a genius. ~ Christoph Waltz

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. ~ Stephen Sondheim

With videotaping, on the second generation you're already losing some of the freshness. ~ Stephen Sondheim