Stephen Sondheim Quotes

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

Best, Live, Different

Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.
Stephen Sondheim

Art, Order, Chaos

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

Hear, Surface, Neurotic

Nice is different than good.
Stephen Sondheim

Good, Nice, Different

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

Time, Young, Amateur

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

May, Choice, Move

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

Writer, Feels, Fraudulent

My personal life and my artistic life do not interfere with each other.
Stephen Sondheim

Life, Personal, Artistic

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

Enjoy, Song, Point

The dumbing down of the country reflects itself on Broadway. The shows get dumber, and the public gets used to them.
Stephen Sondheim

Down, Country, Used

The nice thing about doing a crossword puzzle is, you know there is a solution.
Stephen Sondheim

Nice, Puzzle, Solution

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

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

Revolution, After, Between

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

Play, Everyone, Dead

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

Best, Original, Piece

Gotta watch out for directors.
Stephen Sondheim

Watch, Directors, Gotta

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.
Stephen Sondheim

Listen, Songs, Avoid

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

Music, Writing, Lyric

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

Give, Understand, Acting

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

Love, Music, Laugh

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.
Stephen Sondheim

School, Loved, State

I really don't want to write a score until the whole show is cast and staged.
Stephen Sondheim

Whole, Write, Show

I was raised to be charming, not sincere.
Stephen Sondheim

Sincere, Charming, Raised

I would have been a geologist.
Stephen Sondheim

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

Music, Interested, Theater

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Biography

Nationality: American

Born: March 22, 1930

Links

Find on Amazon: Stephen Sondheim

Cite this Page: Citation

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