Quote

Now, this one might be a little stringy, but then again, it's fiddle player. That isn't fiddle player, it's piccolo player. How can you tell? It's PIPING hot! Then blow on it first!

Stephen Sondheim

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Stephen Sondheim
Age: 94
Born: 1930
Born: March 22
Author
Composer
Dramaturge
Librettist
Lyricist
Musician
Poet
Screenwriter
Songwriter
New York City
New York
Stephen Joshua Sondheim
Littles
Little
Stringy
Might
Piping
Firsts
Fiddle
First
Hot
Blow
Player
Tell

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With videotaping, on the second generation you're already losing some of the freshness.
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Tonight, tonight, won't be just any night. Tonight there will be no morning star.
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A song is such a short form ... that 'the slightest flaw seems like a mountain.' And so every song needs to be revised 'til it's close to perfection... But achieving perfection takes a lot of energy.
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It should be interesting to see two entirely different ways to treat a story, geared for two entirely different kinds of audience.
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White. A blank page or canvas. So many possibilities.
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Generally, the best recording is the original cast, because that's the way the piece grew: integrally, with them.
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You may know what you need, but to get what you want, better see that you keep what you have.
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Lyrics have to be underwritten. That's why poets generally make poor lyric writers because the language is too rich. You get drowned in it.
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Only capitalists get photographers.
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My main goal is to tell a story.
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Everyone I used to play with has either given up or is dead.
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I do not hope for what I cannot have! I do not cling to things I cannot keep!
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One difference between poetry and lyrics is that lyrics sort of fade into the background. They fade on the page and live on the stage when set to music.
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After the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution, songs became part of the story, as opposed to just entertainments in between comedy scenes.
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Oscar Hammerstein was a surrogate father. I liked my father a lot, he was a swell fellow, but I didn’t see him very often because my mother was bitter about him and did everything she could to prevent me from seeing him.
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Everyone tells tiny lies, what's important really is the size.
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To wish and wait From day to day Will never keep The wolves away.
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Let the moment go. . . . Don't forget it for a moment, though. Just remembering you've had an and when you're back to or makes the or mean more than it did before. . . . Now I understand! And it's time to leave the woods.
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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.
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What justifies a character singing one idea for 3 minutes on the screen? I get impatient and want the story to carry on. I don't get impatient in the theatre.
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