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" 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. "

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" 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

Point

Move

Think

" 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. "

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

" Musical comedies aren't written, they are rewritten. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

" There's something inimical about the camera and song. "

" Nowadays, there are sometimes more producers than there are people in the cast, because it takes that much money to put a show on. "

" 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. "

Stephen Sondheim

Live

Theatre

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" Everyone I used to play with has either given up or is dead. "

Stephen Sondheim

Dead

Everyone

" 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. "

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

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

" 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. "

" 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

People

Opinion

" The nice thing about doing a crossword puzzle is, you know there is a solution. "

" 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. "

" Oscar Hammerstein was a surrogate father during all those many days, and weeks and months when I didn't see my own father. "

" 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. "

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

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

Stephen Sondheim

My Life

Find

" When I was growing up, there was no such thing as Off-Broadway. You either got your show on or you didn't. "

Stephen Sondheim

Growing Up

Show

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

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

" 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

Actor

Line