Quotes by Stephen Sondheim

“If I cannot fly, let me sing.”

“Music blows lyrics up very quickly, and suddenly they become more than art. They become pompous and they become self-conscious ... I firmly believe that lyrics have to breathe and give the audience...”

“I prefer neurotic people. I like to hear rumblings beneath the surface.”

“One difference between poetry and lyrics is that lyrics sort of fade into the background. They fade on the page and live on the stage when set to music.”

“Music straightjackets a poem and prevents it from breathing on its own, whereas it liberates a lyric. Poetry doesn't need music; lyrics do.”

“The dumbing down of the country reflects itself on Broadway. The shows get dumber, and the public gets used to them. ”

“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 yours...”

“There's a hole in the world like a big black pit who are filled with people who are filled with shit.”

“Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos. ”

“Unless the object of the singers affection is a vampire, surely what Hart means is unphotogenic. Only vampires are unphotographable, but affectionate -enic rhymes are hard to come by.”

“Automobile in America,Chromium steel in America,Wire-spoke wheel in America,Very big deal in America!Immigrant goes to America,Many hellos in America,Nobody knows in America,Puerto Rico's in Americ...”

“I chose and my world was shaken, so what? The choice may have been mistaken, the choosing was not.”

“I'm interested in the theater because I'm interested in communication with audiences. Otherwise I would be in concert music.”

“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'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 ...”

“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.”

“Alright! You sir, you sir, how about a shave?Come and visit your good friend Sweeney.You sir, too sir? Welcome to the grave.I will have vengenance.I will have salvation.Who sir, you sir?No ones in ...”

“Though it's fearful, Though it's deep, though it's dark And though you may lose the path, Though you may encounter wolves, You can't just act, You have to listen. you can't just act, You have to th...”

“Was that me? Yes it was. Was that him? No it wasn't.. Just a trick of the woods! Just a moment, One peculiar passing moment. Must it all be either less or more, Either plain or grand? Is it a...”

“Must it all be either less or more,Either plain or grand?Is it always 'or'?Is it never 'and'?That's what woods are for:For those moments in the woods...Oh, if life were made of moments,Even now and...”