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Song Quotes by Stephen Sondheim
- A song is such a short form ... that 'the slightest flaw seems like a mountain.' And so every song needs to be revised 'til…
- In the Rodgers and Hammerstein generation, popular hits came out of shows and movies.
- So many good songs get written fast, because you know exactly what has to work.
- Puzzles are like songs - A good puzzle can give you all the pleasure of being duped that a mystery story can. It has surface…
- There's something inimical about the camera and song.
- If you told me to write a love song tonight, I'd have a lot of trouble. But if you tell me to write a love…
- A close-up on screen can say all a song can.
- After the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution, songs became part of the story, as opposed to just entertainments in between comedy scenes.
- 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.
- 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…
- 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…
- When the song is part of the action and working as dialogue, even two minutes is way too long.
- 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.
More Song Quotes
- In every song I write, whether it's a love song or a political song or a song about family, the one thing… — Billie Joe Armstrong
- Set lists are tough because you come up with this structure of how the songs are going to go from one to… — Billie Joe Armstrong
- All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song. — Louis Armstrong
- Storytelling is a very old human skill that gives us an evolutionary advantage. If you can tell young people how you kill… — Margaret Atwood
- You must pass your days in song. Let your whole life be a song. — Sai Baba
- Every single band in the world has these gigantic songs that people are obsessed with. — Sebastian Bach
- I don't understand the mentality of a rock fan, being obsessed with two or three songs from 25 years ago. I'm not… — Sebastian Bach
- A lot of people when they try to sing Skid Row songs, they're screaming and yelling too much. It's more singing than… — Sebastian Bach
- To think that when they come out with these gigantic songs, it's pretty tough to top them, you know. — Sebastian Bach
- My songs are like cheap Neil Young copies. — Randy Bachman
- I don't have one song that sounds like another one in my entire catalog. — Erykah Badu
- A songwriter writes songs all the time, whereas just writing a song can be done by anyone, anytime. — Bryan Adams