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
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
The worst thing you can do is censor yourself as the pencil hits the paper. You must not edit until you get it all on paper. If you can put everything down, stream-of-consciousness, you’ll do yourself a service. – Stephen Sondheim
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
I certainly wanted my name in lights. I wanted my name on a marquee. I wanted recognition on Broadway. – Stephen Sondheim
I chose and my world was shaken. So what? The choice may have been mistaken; the choosing was not. You have to move on. – Stephen Sondheim
By the time I was 22, I was a professional. A young and flawed professional, but not an amateur. – Stephen Sondheim
If people have split views about your work, I think it’s flattering. I’d rather have them feel something about it than dismiss it. – Stephen Sondheim
I’m always conscious of what I’m writing, conscious of what the actor may ask me. I have a defense for nearly every line in the song. – Stephen Sondheim
Oscar Hammerstein was a surrogate father during all those many days, and weeks and months when I didn’t see my own father. – Stephen Sondheim
Math and music are intimately related. Not necessarily on a conscious level, but sure. – Stephen Sondheim
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
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
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
Two of the hardest words in the language to rhyme are life and love. Of all words! – Stephen Sondheim
