He taught me how to structure a song, what a character was, what a scene was ; he taught me how to tell a story, how not to tell a story, how to make stage directions practical, i soaked it all up, and I still practice the principles he taught me that afternoon.

Stephen Sondheim

Bit by bit, putting it together... Piece by piece, only way to make a work of art. Every moment makes a contribution, Every little detail plays a part. Having just the vision's no solution, Everything depends on execution, Putting it together, that's what counts.

Stephen Sondheim

vision play art

Any moment, big or small, Is a moment, after all. Seize the moment, skies may fall Any moment.

Stephen Sondheim

sky may fall

Success is like failure, It's how you perceive it, It's what you do with it, not how you achieve it.

Stephen Sondheim

perceive achieve

Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.

Stephen Sondheim

racist order art

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.

Stephen Sondheim

theatre roles different

If I cannot fly, let me sing.

Stephen Sondheim

let-me singing ifs

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

cry laughing ideas

Anything you do, let it come from you. Then it will be new.

Stephen Sondheim

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. People make mistakes. Fathers, mothers, people make mistakes, holding to their own, thinking they're alone. Honor their mistakes. Fight for their mistakes. Witches can be right. Giants can be good. You decide what's right. You decide what's good.

Stephen Sondheim

mother mistake father

You have two kinds of shows on Broadway - revivals and the same kind of musicals over and over again, all spectacles. You get your tickets for 'The Lion King' a year in advance, and essentially a family comes as if to a picnic, and they pass on to their children the idea that that's what the theater is - a spectacular musical you see once a year, a stage version of a movie. It has nothing to do with theater at all. It has to do with seeing what is familiar. We live in a recycled culture.

Stephen Sondheim

kings children years

The only reason to write is from love.

Stephen Sondheim

reason writing

The last collaborator is your audience ... when the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you've written. Things that seem to work well -- work in a sense of carry the story forward and be integral to the piece -- suddenly become a little less relevant or a little less functional or a little overlong or a little overweight or a little whatever. And so you start reshaping from an audience.

Stephen Sondheim

temperature stories writing

I like neurotic people. I like troubled people. Not that I don't like squared-away people, but I prefer neurotic people. I like to hear rumblings beneath the surface.

Stephen Sondheim

beneath-the-surface surface people

Everything depends upon execution; having just a vision is no solution.

Stephen Sondheim

execution vision inspirational

I'm interested in the theater because I'm interested in communication with audiences. Otherwise I would be in concert music.

Stephen Sondheim

theater communication would-be

Into the woods you go again You have to every now and then Into the woods, no telling when Be ready for the journey Into the woods, each time you go There's more to learn of what you know.

Stephen Sondheim

learning journey time

Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor.

Stephen Sondheim

lengthy visitors opportunity

I read to see myself in other people's lives.

Stephen Sondheim

people

I chose and my world was shaken. So what? The choice may have been mistaken; the choosing was not. You have to move on.

Stephen Sondheim

moving-on mistake inspirational

Best to take the moment present as a present for the moment. . .

Stephen Sondheim

moments