A biography for Stephen Sondheimhasn’t been written yet.
“I'm interested in the theater because I'm interested in communication with audiences. Otherwise I would be in concert music.”
“Nice is different than good.”
“I prefer neurotic people. I like to hear rumblings beneath the surface.”
“I fell into lyric writing because of music. I backed into it.”
“There's a hole in the world like a big black pit who are filled with people who are filled with shit.”
“A close-up on screen can say all a song can.”
“I'm always conscious of what I'm writing, conscious of what the actor may ask me. I have a defense for nearly every line in the song.”
“Everyone I used to play with has either given up or is dead.”
“I would have been a geologist.”
“I'm a great audience. I cry very easily. I suspend disbelief in two seconds.”
“The fact is popular art dates. It grows quaint. How many people feel strongly about Gilbert and Sullivan today compared to those who felt strongly in 1890?”
“I was essentially trained by Oscar Hammerstein to think of songs as one-act plays, to move a song from point A to point B dramatically.”
“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.”
“Generally, the best recording is the original cast, because that's the way the piece grew: integrally, with them.”
“There's something inimical about the camera and song.”
“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.”
“When I was growing up, there was no such thing as Off-Broadway. You either got your show on or you didn't.”
“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.”
“My parents weren't around much, but I assumed everybody's family was the same. I didn't know people had mummies and daddies who would give them milk and cookies after school. I just thought everybody lived on Central Park West and they had a nanny to take care of them.”
“I really don't want to write a score until the whole show is cast and staged.”