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" 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

Story

Singer

Enjoy

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

Stephen Sondheim

My Life

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

" 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. "

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

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

" 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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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

" I would have been a geologist. "

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

" My idea of heaven is not writing. "

" I'm interested in the theater because I'm interested in communication with audiences. Otherwise I would be in concert music. "

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

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

" 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. "

" 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

" 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

" I was raised to be charming, not sincere. "

" 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. "

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

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

" I think 'lunch' is one of the funniest words in the world. "

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

" By the time I was 22, I was a professional. A young and flawed professional, but not an amateur. "

" 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. "

" In the Rodgers and Hammerstein generation, popular hits came out of shows and movies. "

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

Stephen Sondheim

Dead

Everyone

" 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. "