110+ Stephen Sondheim Quotes On Musical Atre, Musical And Innovative

Stephen Sondheim was an American composer, lyricist, and playwright. He is known for his work on musicals such as West Side Story, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Sweeney Todd. He has won numerous awards, including eight Tony Awards and an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Sooner or Later" from Dick Tracy. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Stephen Sondheim on musical atre, life, love.

Top 10 Stephen Sondheim Quotes

1. If I cannot fly, let me sing.
2. Any moment, big or small, Is a moment, after all. Seize the moment, skies may fall Any moment.
3. The only reason to write is from love.
4. Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.
5. 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.
6. All the best performers bring to their role something more, something different than what the author put on paper. That's what makes theatre live. That's why it persists.
7. Everything depends upon execution; having just a vision is no solution.
8. I like neurotic people. I like troubled people. Not that I don't like squared-away people, but I prefer neurotic people. I like to hear rumblings beneath the surface.
9. The dumbing down of the country reflects itself on Broadway. The shows get dumber, and the public gets used to them.
10. Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor.

Stephen Sondheim Image Quotes

The only reason to write is from love. — Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Sondheim Short Quotes

• The nice thing about doing a crossword puzzle is, you know there is a solution.
• White. A blank page or canvas. So many possibilities.
• When the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you've written.
• The Tonys ignored West Side Story. The Tonys ignored Gypsy. It's a kind of public humiliation.
• Everyone I used to play with has either given up or is dead.
• My idea of heaven is not writing.
• I would have been a geologist.
• With videotaping, on the second generation you're already losing some of the freshness.
• Sometimes colleagues in performance are absolutely astonishing.
• I'm a great audience. I cry very easily. I suspend disbelief in two seconds.

Stephen Sondheim Quotes About Life

Two of the hardest words in the language to rhyme are life and love. Of all words! — Stephen Sondheim

My personal life and my artistic life do not interfere with each other. — 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

I don't find my life that interesting. The shows, maybe. But not me. — Stephen Sondheim

Can't we just pursue our lives With our children and our wives Till that happy day arrives How do you ignore All the witches All the curses All the wolves, all the lies The false hopes, the goodbyes . . . — Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Sondheim Quotes About Love

If you told me to write a love song tonight, I'd have a lot of trouble. But if you tell me to write a love song about a girl with a red dress who goes into a bar and is on her fifth martini and is falling off her chair, that's a lot easier, and it makes me free to say anything I want. — 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

No one has ever known me as clearly as you. No one has ever shown me that love allows everything. Not pretty or safe or easy but something I never knew. Love within reason, that isn't love and I learned that from you. — 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

I'm before him on my knees, and he kisses me He assumes I lose my reason and I do. Men are stupid, men are vain, Love's disgusting, love's insane, A humiliating business-oh how true. — Stephen Sondheim

The more you cling to things, The more you love them, The more the pain you suffer, When they're taken from you. — 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

I was never much of a reader. I'm a slow reader, which is unusual, because I'm so into language and I love words so much. But it's hard for me to read. — Stephen Sondheim

I love the theater as much as music, and the whole idea of getting across to an audience and making them laugh, making them cry - just making them feel - is paramount to me. — Stephen Sondheim

I've always liked puzzles, since I was a kid. I like party games, silly games. I loved chess. I enjoy jigsaw puzzles, but I'm not particularly visual. — Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Sondheim Quotes About Musical

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

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

Musical comedies aren't written, they are rewritten. — Stephen Sondheim

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. — 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

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

Deciding what is to be sung and what is not to be sung is really what writing a musical is about. — Stephen Sondheim

Take a play that you like but you think is flawed, and see if you can improve it and turn it into a musical. [...] Then make up your own story. — Stephen Sondheim

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

Stephen Sondheim Quotes About Lyrical

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

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. — 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

Making lyrics feel natural, sit on music in such a way that you don't 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 you're making art. — 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

Stephen Sondheim Quotes About Song

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

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

There's something inimical about the camera and song. — Stephen Sondheim

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

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. — 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

I like songs that are part of a dramatic texture, and therefore I like the scenes to be active. I wanna follow the story and that means you lean on the actors. — Stephen Sondheim

I don't write songs apart from theatrical pieces. I'm not interested in writing songs qua songs. — Stephen Sondheim

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

Stephen Sondheim Quotes About People

I prefer neurotic people. I like to hear rumblings beneath the surface. — Stephen Sondheim

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

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

I happen to like movies and plays about dislikeable people as long as I get to know why they are what they are. — Stephen Sondheim

When I listen to my work, I think, what's so inflammatory about it? It's not really that dissonant. A lot of people who used to hate my stuff have come round to it. — 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

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 — 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

I read to see myself in other people's lives. — Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Sondheim Quotes About Music

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 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

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

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. — Stephen Sondheim

Music is structure out of Chaos — 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

I took piano lessons when I was 6. I didn't want to go on with it. I don't remember being moved by a piece of music. — 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

Stephen Sondheim Quotes About Writing

The more restrictions you have, the easier anything is to write. — 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

Writing is a form of mischief. — Stephen Sondheim

Sometimes I'll ask the book writer to write a monologue, not to be performed, just as if they were notes for the character. — Stephen Sondheim

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

By the time I get through writing a score, I know the book better than the book writer does, because I've examined every word, and questioned the book writer on every word. — Stephen Sondheim

Art is craft, not inspiration. — 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

I love computers. I love writing on them. I love gadgetry. The thing is: I am a slow reader. So, if I am going to get my work done, I read, like, a newspaper and that's it. If I got into websites and the internet, I wouldn't get any work done. — Stephen Sondheim

I'm a lazy writer. My idea of heaven is not writing. On the other hand, I'm obviously compulsive about it. — Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Sondheim Quotes About Songs

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

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

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

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

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

A close-up on screen can say all a song can. — 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

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

Stephen Sondheim Famous Quotes And Sayings

The only reason to write is from love. — Stephen Sondheim

Let the moment go. . . . Don't forget it for a moment, though. Just remembering you've had an "and" when you're back to "or" makes the "or" mean more than it did before. . . . Now I understand! And it's time to leave the woods. — Stephen Sondheim

I chose and my world was shaken. So what? The choice may have been mistaken; the choosing was not. You have to move on. — Stephen Sondheim

When you trance out properly, when you're completely in that world, there is no other world, so there's no conflict. — 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

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

There's a hole in the world Like a great black pit And the vermin of the world Inhabit it ... And it goes by the name of London. — Stephen Sondheim

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. — Stephen Sondheim

For me it's more fun to find an unexpected moment for a character to sing when you don't expect them to. — Stephen Sondheim

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 America!I like the shores of America!Comfort is yours in America!Knobs on the doors in America!Wall-to-wall floors in America! — 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

It's pleasanter to work in the country, where you can wander out among the trees. But I don't get as much work done. In the city you don't want to leave the room because there's all that chaos going on. — Stephen Sondheim

They all deserve to die. Even you, Mrs. Lovett Even I. Because the lives of the wicked should be made brief For the rest of us death would be relief. — Stephen Sondheim

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

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

You're so nice. You're not good, you're not bad, You're just nice. I'm not good, I'm not nice, I'm just right. I'm the witch. You're the world. — 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

Anything that is white is sweet. Anything that is brown is meat. Anything that is grey, don't eat. — Stephen Sondheim

Only capitalists get photographers. — Stephen Sondheim

Teaching is a sacred profession. And art is a form of teaching. — Stephen Sondheim

I've always preferred actors who sing to singers who act in all the shows I've done. — Stephen Sondheim

I have inherited my father's sense of humour about myself. It's a lot more pleasant to make fun of yourself than when someone else does. — Stephen Sondheim

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

Work is what you do for others, liebchen. Art is what you do for yourself. — 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

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

By the time I was 22, I was a professional. A young and flawed professional, but not an amateur. — 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 certainly wanted my name in lights. I wanted my name on a marquee. I wanted recognition on Broadway. — Stephen Sondheim

Best to take the moment present as a present for the moment. . . — Stephen Sondheim

Bit by bit, putting it together... Piece by piece, only way to make a work of art. Every moment makes a contribution, Every little detail plays a part. Having just the vision's no solution, Everything depends on execution, Putting it together, that's what counts. — Stephen Sondheim

The concerts you enjoy together neighbors you annoy together children you destroy together that make marriage a joy — 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 was raised to be charming, not sincere. — Stephen Sondheim

Now, this one might be a little stringy, but then again, it's fiddle player. That isn't fiddle player, it's piccolo player. How can you tell? It's PIPING hot! Then blow on it first! — Stephen Sondheim

White. A blank page or canvas. The challenge. Bring order to the whole Through design, composition, tension, balance, light, and harmony. — Stephen Sondheim

Everybody faces a blank piece of paper, no matter what they've written or painted or composed before. I can't imagine approaching every single new project with-without doubt. — Stephen Sondheim

It's not so much do what you like as it is that you like what you do. — Stephen Sondheim

For anyone approaching any one of the cast albums, if they don't like what they hear, it's not the performer's fault. — Stephen Sondheim

Every day a little death. — 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

Tonight, tonight, won't be just any night. Tonight there will be no morning star. — Stephen Sondheim

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

Every writer I've ever spoken to feels fraudulent in some way or other. — Stephen Sondheim

I have, by nature, an analytical mind. — Stephen Sondheim

I was watching him crawl, Back over the wall-! Then bang! Crash! And the lightning flash! And- well, that's another story, Never mind- Anyway. — Stephen Sondheim

Just remember, Someone is on your side (our side) Someone else is not While we're seeing our side Maybe we forgot: they are not alone. No one is alone. — Stephen Sondheim

Success is like failure, It's how you perceive it, It's what you do with it, not how you achieve it. — Stephen Sondheim

I do not dwell on dreams I know how soon a dream becomes an expectation How can I have expectations? Look at me, No, Captain, Look at me, Look at me! — Stephen Sondheim

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

Gotta watch out for directors. — Stephen Sondheim

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

Life Lessons by Stephen Sondheim

1. Stephen Sondheim teaches us to never give up on our dreams and to keep pushing forward to achieve our goals.
2. He also emphasizes the importance of collaboration and working together to create something great.
3. Finally, he encourages us to be open to criticism and to use it to grow and improve our work.