I don't write songs apart from theatrical pieces. I'm not interested in writing songs qua songs. — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
When the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you've written. — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
Every writer I've ever spoken to feels fraudulent in some way or other. — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
So many good songs get written fast, because you know exactly what has to work. — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
Friendship, obligation and greed are not good enough reasons to write anything. — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
Lyrics have to be underwritten. That's why poets generally make poor lyric writers because the language is too rich. You get drowned… — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
By the time I get through writing a score, I know the book better than the book writer does, because I've examined… — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
I didn't really want to write just lyrics, but I wanted to meet Leonard Bernstein. Music was always the first reason I… — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
I'm always conscious of what I'm writing, conscious of what the actor may ask me. I have a defense for nearly every… — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
If you told me to write a love song tonight, I'd have a lot of trouble. But if you tell me to… — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
I love computers. I love writing on them. I love gadgetry. The thing is: I am a slow reader. So, if I… — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
Deciding what is to be sung and what is not to be sung is really what writing a musical is about. — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
I'm a lazy writer. My idea of heaven is not writing. On the other hand, I'm obviously compulsive about it. — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
Sometimes I'll ask the book writer to write a monologue, not to be performed, just as if they were notes for the… — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
You get used to the exact amount of space between lines. You write a word and then you write an alternate word… — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
Everyone would like to be on Broadway, cause if a show works, you make a great deal of money and it allows… — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
Over a period of time it's been driven home to me that I'm not going to be the most popular writer in… — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
One of the hardest things about writing lyrics is to make the lyrics sit on the music in such a way that… — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
A song is such a short form ... that 'the slightest flaw seems like a mountain.' And so every song needs to… — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
When you know your cast well and their strengths and weaknesses, you can start writing for them, just the way Shakespeare wrote… — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
The last collaborator is your audience ... when the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you've written. Things that… — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
“They all deserve to die. Tell you why, Mrs. Lovett, tell you why. Because in all of the whole human race Mrs Lovett, there… — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
It's not so hard to be married, I've done it three or four times. — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
I don't find my life that interesting. The shows, maybe. But not me. — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
“Careful the things you say, Children will listen. Careful the things you do, Children will see. And learn. Children may not obey But children… — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
“Because in all of the whole human race Mrs. Lovett, there are two kinds of men and only two There's the one staying put… — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
I love computers. I love writing on them. I love gadgetry. The thing is: I am a slow reader. So, if I am going… — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
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… — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
I prefer neurotic people. I like to hear rumblings beneath the surface. — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
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… — Stephen Sondheim Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
