To wish and wait From day to day Will never keep The wolves away. Stephen Sondheim More Quotes by Stephen Sondheim More Quotes From Stephen Sondheim Deciding what is to be sung and what is not to be sung is really what writing a musical is about. Stephen Sondheim musicalwriting Stay a child while you can be a child. Stephen Sondheim inspirationalkidschildren 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 richpoetlanguage Sometimes colleagues in performance are absolutely astonishing. Stephen Sondheim colleaguesperformancessometimes I've always preferred actors who sing to singers who act in all the shows I've done. Stephen Sondheim singersactorsdone White. A blank page or canvas. So many possibilities. Stephen Sondheim canvaspageswhite When you trance out properly, when you're completely in that world, there is no other world, so there's no conflict. Stephen Sondheim other-worldsconflictworld The Tonys ignored West Side Story. The Tonys ignored Gypsy. It's a kind of public humiliation. Stephen Sondheim weststoriessides 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. Stephen Sondheim viewspeoplethinking Musicals are, by nature, theatrical, meaning poetic, meaning having to move the audience's imagination and create a suspension of disbelief, by which I mean there's no fourth wall. Stephen Sondheim wallmeanmoving The nice thing about doing a crossword puzzle is, you know there is a solution. Stephen Sondheim gamblingidahonice Gotta watch out for directors. Stephen Sondheim watchesdirectors By the time I was 22, I was a professional. A young and flawed professional, but not an amateur. Stephen Sondheim flawedflawsyoung Ah, but if you have no expectations, You can never have a disappointment. Stephen Sondheim disappointmentifsexpectations If you told me to write a love song tonight, I'd have a lot of trouble. But if you tell me to write a love song about a girl with a red dress who goes into a bar and is on her fifth martini and is falling off her chair, that's a lot easier, and it makes me free to say anything I want. Stephen Sondheim girlsongfall Music is structure out of Chaos Stephen Sondheim chaosstructuremusic-is Nowadays, there are sometimes more producers than there are people in the cast, because it takes that much money to put a show on. Stephen Sondheim producerssometimespeople I prefer neurotic people. I like to hear rumblings beneath the surface. Stephen Sondheim beneath-the-surfacesurfacepeople Oh if life were made of moments Even now and then a bad one--! But if life were only moments, Then you'd never know you had one. Stephen Sondheim now-and-thenmomentsmade 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. Stephen Sondheim oscarsmonthsfather
