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" I don't find my life that interesting. The shows, maybe. But not me. "
Stephen Sondheim
My Life
Me
Find
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" 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. "
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Time
Story
Speech
" My idea of heaven is not writing. "
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Heaven
Idea
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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. "
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Point
Move
Think
" 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. "
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Music
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You
" There's something inimical about the camera and song. "
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Song
About
Camera
" Musical comedies aren't written, they are rewritten. "
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Rewritten
Written
Musical
" I was raised to be charming, not sincere. "
Stephen Sondheim
I Was Raised
Raised
Sincere
" 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
Know
You
Writing
" 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
Me
Opinion
" I have, by nature, an analytical mind. "
Stephen Sondheim
Mind
Nature
Analytical
" Two of the hardest words in the language to rhyme are life and love. Of all words! "
Stephen Sondheim
Two
Words
Language
" I'm interested in the theater because I'm interested in communication with audiences. Otherwise I would be in concert music. "
Stephen Sondheim
Music
Because
Communication
" 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
Mathematics
Nature
Take
" 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
People
Investment
You
" 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
Because
You
Why
" 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
Up
" In the Rodgers and Hammerstein generation, popular hits came out of shows and movies. "
Stephen Sondheim
Out
Popular
Generation
" 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
More
Theatre
" I certainly wanted my name in lights. I wanted my name on a marquee. I wanted recognition on Broadway. "
Stephen Sondheim
Recognition
Broadway
Lights
" 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
Eyes
Story
You
" I prefer neurotic people. I like to hear rumblings beneath the surface. "
Stephen Sondheim
Neurotic
People
Surface
" 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
Father
Yourself
Myself
" Math and music are intimately related. Not necessarily on a conscious level, but sure. "
Stephen Sondheim
Sure
Conscious
Level
" 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
Sometimes
Show
People
" 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
Art
You
Music
" A close-up on screen can say all a song can. "
Stephen Sondheim
Close-Up
Say
Screen
" Oscar Hammerstein was a surrogate father during all those many days, and weeks and months when I didn't see my own father. "
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See
Own
Days
" 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
Project
New
Matter
" 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
Woman
Ambition
Clothes
" 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
New York
Loved
Always