#r

Gotta watch out for directors. ↗

— Stephen Sondheim

#gotta #out #watch

I don't listen to recordings of my songs. I don't avoid it, I just don't go out of my way to do it. ↗

— Stephen Sondheim

#go #i #just #listen #out

I fell into lyric writing because of music. I backed into it. ↗

— Stephen Sondheim

#because #fell #i #into #lyric

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. ↗

— Stephen Sondheim

#audience #believe #breathe #chance #costume

I love the theater as much as music, and the whole idea of getting across to an audience and making them laugh, making them cry - just making them feel - is paramount to me. ↗

— Stephen Sondheim

#audience #cry #feel #getting #i

I played the organ when I went to military school, when I was 10. They had a huge organ, the second-largest pipe organ in New York State. I loved all the buttons and the gadgets. I've always been a gadget man. ↗

— Stephen Sondheim

#been #buttons #gadget #gadgets #had

I was raised to be charming, not sincere. ↗

— Stephen Sondheim

#i #i was raised #raised #sincere

If you're dealing with a musical in which you're trying to tell a story, it's got to sound like speech. At the same time it's got to be a song. ↗

— Stephen Sondheim

#got #like #musical #same #song

In the Rodgers and Hammerstein generation, popular hits came out of shows and movies. ↗

— Stephen Sondheim

#generation #hammerstein #hits #movies #out

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. ↗

— Stephen Sondheim

#drowned #generally #get #language #lyric