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Ah, but if you have no expectations, You can never have a disappointment.

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
Disappointment
Expectations
Never

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My mother wanted me off her hands. She was a working woman. She designed clothes, and she was a celebrity collector. It's my mother's ambition to be a celebrity.
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Pointillism takes emotional images, character, etc., and makes them all come together and make a whole that tells a story.
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I'm a lazy writer. My idea of heaven is not writing. On the other hand, I'm obviously compulsive about it.
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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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Almost all the shows I've been connected with have been extremely well cast. They're playing the show, not just doing the songs.
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There's a hole in the world Like a great black pit And the vermin of the world Inhabit it ... And it goes by the name of London.
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So here's to the girls on the go Everybody tries. Look into their eyes, And you'll see what they know: Everybody dies. A toast to that invincible bunch, The dinosaurs surviving the crunch. Let's hear it for the ladies who lunch Everybody rise!
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For me it's more fun to find an unexpected moment for a character to sing when you don't expect them to.
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To wish and wait From day to day Will never keep The wolves away.
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Only capitalists get photographers.
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You move just a finger, say the slightest word, something's bound to linger-be heard.
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Anything that is white is sweet. Anything that is brown is meat. Anything that is grey, don't eat.
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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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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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The more you cling to things, The more you love them, The more the pain you suffer, When they're taken from you.
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Nowadays, there are sometimes more producers than there are people in the cast, because it takes that much money to put a show on.
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Slotted spoons don't hold much soup.
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By the time I get through writing a score, I know the book better than the book writer does, because I've examined every word, and questioned the book writer on every word.
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TODD: The history of the world, my love -- LOVETT: Save a lot of graves, Do a lot of relatives favors! TODD: Is those below serving those up above! LOVETT: Ev'rybody shaves, So there should be plenty of flavors! TODD: How gratifying for once to know BOTH: That those above will serve those down below!
Stephen Sondheim