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" My idea of heaven is not writing. "
Stephen Sondheim
Heaven
Idea
Writing
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" 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. "
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Project
New
Matter
" When I'm writing a song, I try to be the character. "
Stephen Sondheim
Character
Try
Song
" 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. "
Stephen Sondheim
Create
Imagination
Meaning
" I really don't want to write a score until the whole show is cast and staged. "
Stephen Sondheim
Until
Cast
Score
" 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
" Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos. "
Stephen Sondheim
Art
Out
Order
" My personal life and my artistic life do not interfere with each other. "
Stephen Sondheim
Life
Each
Interfere
" 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
Love
View
Song
" The nice thing about doing a crossword puzzle is, you know there is a solution. "
Stephen Sondheim
You
Know
Doing
" 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
Time
Story
Speech
" There's something inimical about the camera and song. "
Stephen Sondheim
Song
About
Camera
" When the song is part of the action and working as dialogue, even two minutes is way too long. "
Stephen Sondheim
Two
Way
Working
" 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
Listen
Just
Avoid
" 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
" A close-up on screen can say all a song can. "
Stephen Sondheim
Close-Up
Say
Screen
" 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
" 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
" 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
Chance
Story
You
" I would have been a geologist. "
Stephen Sondheim
Geologist
Would
Been
" Every writer I've ever spoken to feels fraudulent in some way or other. "
Stephen Sondheim
Some
Way
Feels
" 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
Laugh
Love
Me
" When the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you've written. "
Stephen Sondheim
Audience
Temperature
You
" I certainly wanted my name in lights. I wanted my name on a marquee. I wanted recognition on Broadway. "
Stephen Sondheim
Recognition
Broadway
Lights
" By the time I was 22, I was a professional. A young and flawed professional, but not an amateur. "
Stephen Sondheim
Professional
Young
Time
" I prefer neurotic people. I like to hear rumblings beneath the surface. "
Stephen Sondheim
Neurotic
People
Surface
" Everyone I used to play with has either given up or is dead. "
Stephen Sondheim
Dead
Everyone
Up
" After the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution, songs became part of the story, as opposed to just entertainments in between comedy scenes. "
Stephen Sondheim
Story
Comedy
Just
" 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
" Generally, the best recording is the original cast, because that's the way the piece grew: integrally, with them. "
Stephen Sondheim
Way
Original
Best
" 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
Audience
Collaboration
You