Quote

I like songs that are part of a dramatic texture, and therefore I like the scenes to be active. I wanna follow the story and that means you lean on the actors.

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
Story
Scenes
Actors
Wanna
Song
Dramatic
Means
Active
Stories
Follow
Part
Therefore
Mean
Songs
Texture
Like
Scene
Lean

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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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Slotted spoons don't hold much soup.
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Take a play that you like but you think is flawed, and see if you can improve it and turn it into a musical. [...] Then make up your own story.
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Tonight, tonight, won't be just any night. Tonight there will be no morning star.
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Sometimes people leave you Halfway through the wood Others may decieve you You decide what's good You decide alone But no one is alone
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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!
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Every writer I've ever spoken to feels fraudulent in some way or other.
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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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There's something inimical about the camera and song.
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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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If I got involved with the chat rooms and Facebook and everything - I would probably never leave. That's why I don't do it. I literally don't do it. At all.
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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.
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I liked my father a lot, but I didn't see him very often because my mother was bitter about him. He remarried, and I used to have to sneak off to see him.
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The Tonys ignored West Side Story. The Tonys ignored Gypsy. It's a kind of public humiliation.
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With videotaping, on the second generation you're already losing some of the freshness.
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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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Success is like failure, It's how you perceive it, It's what you do with it, not how you achieve it.
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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.
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Dreams are a sweet mistake All dreamers must awake On, then, with the dance No backward glance Or my heart will break Never look back.
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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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