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" I was raised to be charming, not sincere. "
Stephen Sondheim
I Was Raised
Raised
Sincere
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" Every writer I've ever spoken to feels fraudulent in some way or other. "
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" My idea of heaven is not writing. "
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" The dumbing down of the country reflects itself on Broadway. The shows get dumber, and the public gets used to them. "
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Public
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" 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. "
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" By the time I was 22, I was a professional. A young and flawed professional, but not an amateur. "
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Young
Time
" When I'm writing a song, I try to be the character. "
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Character
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" When the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you've written. "
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" 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. "
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Chance
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" 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. "
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Create
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" 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. "
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Listen
Just
Avoid
" When the song is part of the action and working as dialogue, even two minutes is way too long. "
Stephen Sondheim
Two
Way
Working
" There's something inimical about the camera and song. "
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Song
About
Camera
" I really don't want to write a score until the whole show is cast and staged. "
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Until
Cast
Score
" Nice is different than good. "
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Than
Different
Good
" 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. "
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Pencil
Down
Yourself
" 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. "
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Live
More
Theatre
" 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
" I'm a great audience. I cry very easily. I suspend disbelief in two seconds. "
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Disbelief
Great
Two
" The nice thing about doing a crossword puzzle is, you know there is a solution. "
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You
Know
Doing
" 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. "
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Writing
Music
Sit
" 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 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
" My personal life and my artistic life do not interfere with each other. "
Stephen Sondheim
Life
Each
Interfere
" So many good songs get written fast, because you know exactly what has to work. "
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Because
Know
Good
" Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos. "
Stephen Sondheim
Art
Out
Order
" 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. "
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Story
Singer
Enjoy
" I have, by nature, an analytical mind. "
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Mind
Nature
Analytical
" Generally, the best recording is the original cast, because that's the way the piece grew: integrally, with them. "
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Way
Original
Best
" Math and music are intimately related. Not necessarily on a conscious level, but sure. "
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Sure
Conscious
Level