Quote

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.

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
London
Goes
Sweeney
Name
Londoners
Names
Vermin
Black
Inhabit
Great
Pits
Like
Hole
World
Holes

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I'm interested in the theater because I'm interested in communication with audiences. Otherwise I would be in concert music.
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Over a period of time it's been driven home to me that I'm not going to be the most popular writer in the world, so I'm always happy when anything in any way is accepted.
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I took piano lessons when I was 6. I didn't want to go on with it. I don't remember being moved by a piece of music.
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Puzzles are like songs - A good puzzle can give you all the pleasure of being duped that a mystery story can. It has surface innocence, surprise, the revelation of a concealed meaning, and the catharsis of solution.
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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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Lemuel Ayers had had a huge success producing and designing Kiss Me, Kate. He wanted to produce this as a musical. I got the job. It was a professional score.
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I was watching him crawl, Back over the wall-! Then bang! Crash! And the lightning flash! And- well, that's another story, Never mind- Anyway.
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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.
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I don't write songs apart from theatrical pieces. I'm not interested in writing songs qua songs.
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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!
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When you trance out properly, when you're completely in that world, there is no other world, so there's no conflict.
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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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I don't like the word 'career'. When somebody says to me, 'oh, you've had such a wonderful career', I think, 'career - that's after you're dead.' I just don't think that way.
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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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I do not dwell on dreams I know how soon a dream becomes an expectation How can I have expectations? Look at me, No, Captain, Look at me, Look at me!
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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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Every writer I've ever spoken to feels fraudulent in some way or other.
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Just remember, Someone is on your side (our side) Someone else is not While we're seeing our side Maybe we forgot: they are not alone. No one is alone.
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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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With videotaping, on the second generation you're already losing some of the freshness.
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