Stephen Sondheim

Content dictates form and style.

— Stephen Sondheim

“Sing out, Louise!”

— Stephen Sondheim

My idea of heaven is not writing.

— Stephen Sondheim

My cage has many rooms.

— Stephen Sondheim

My main goal is to tell a story.

— Stephen Sondheim

Music is structure out of Chaos

— Stephen Sondheim

Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor.

— Stephen Sondheim

Nice is different than good.

— Stephen Sondheim

I have, by nature, an analytical mind.

— Stephen Sondheim

I fell into lyric writing because of music. I backed into it.

— Stephen Sondheim

“Some of us don't like the way you've been telling it.”

— Stephen Sondheim

The difference between a cow and a bean is a bean can begin an adventure.

— Stephen Sondheim

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

— Stephen Sondheim

“Children can only grow from something you love to something you lose.”

— Stephen Sondheim

“Into the Woods, then Out of the Woods..and home before dark!”

— Stephen Sondheim

Best to take the moment present as a present for the moment. . .

— Stephen Sondheim

When the song is part of the action and working as dialogue, even two minutes is way too long.

— Stephen Sondheim

In not-for-profit theater, you don't worry so much about how the audience is going to react. You want to make them absorb…

— Stephen Sondheim

I don't write songs apart from theatrical pieces. I'm not interested in writing songs qua songs.

— Stephen Sondheim

Generally, the best recording is the original cast, because that's the way the piece grew: integrally, with them.

— Stephen Sondheim

They all deserve to die. Even you, Mrs. Lovett Even I. Because the lives of the wicked should be made brief For…

— Stephen Sondheim

“There's a hole in the world like a big black pit who are filled with people who are filled with shit.”

— Stephen Sondheim

You have to be submitted for the Pulitzer, and unbeknownst to us, a choral director whom I know had submitted us.

— Stephen Sondheim

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

No one has ever known me as clearly as you. No one has ever shown me that love allows everything. Not pretty…

— Stephen Sondheim

I don't like the word 'career'. When somebody says to me, 'oh, you've had such a wonderful career', I think, 'career -…

— Stephen Sondheim

When I listen to my work, I think, what's so inflammatory about it? It's not really that dissonant. A lot of people…

— Stephen Sondheim

What justifies a character singing one idea for 3 minutes on the screen? I get impatient and want the story to carry…

— Stephen Sondheim

Every single song I've ever written is sung by a character created by somebody else. Some might have a jaundiced view of…

— Stephen Sondheim

Let Pirelli's / Miracle Elixir / Activate your roots, sir... Keep it off your boots, sir- / Eats right through. Yes, get…

— Stephen Sondheim

I'm before him on my knees, and he kisses me He assumes I lose my reason and I do. Men are stupid,…

— Stephen Sondheim

So here's to the girls on the go- Everybody tries Look into their eyes and you'll see what they know: Everybody dies.…

— Stephen Sondheim

“There was a barber and his wife and she was beautiful... a foolish barber and his wife. She was his reason for…

— Stephen Sondheim

That's the trouble with awards for a body of work. They always come at both a good time and a wrong time.…

— Stephen Sondheim

“TOBIAS: Nothing's gonna harm you, not while I'm around. Nothing's gonna harm you, no sir, not while I'm around. Demons are prowling…

— Stephen Sondheim

The last collaborator is your audience ... when the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you've written. Things that…

— Stephen Sondheim

“Automobile in America, Chromium steel in America, Wire-spoke wheel in America, Very big deal in America! Immigrant goes to America, Many hellos…

— Stephen Sondheim

“Loving you is not a choice, It's who I am. Loving you is not a choice And not much reason to rejoice,…

— Stephen Sondheim

You have two kinds of shows on Broadway - revivals and the same kind of musicals over and over again, all spectacles.…

— Stephen Sondheim

Johnny Depp's performance is quite remarkable. Sweeney's desire for revenge and the simmering anger and hurt that he feels carry the story…

— Stephen Sondheim