Sondheim Lyrics Quotes & Sayings

Sondheim writes the music and lyrics, and because he's so smart and goes so deep with his feelings, there's a lot to explore, get involved with and learn about. — Bernadette Peters

I saw "Follies" again at thirty, and you know, I had this great appreciation for [Stephen] Sondheim's brilliance, his lyrics. — Charles Busch

To be free it is not enough to beat the system, one must beat the system every day — Samuel Johnson

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. — Stephen Sondheim

The central question is, is this guy right? Or is he mad? What do you, the reader, think about this? Which struck me as a properly anarchist solution. I didn't want to tell people what to think, I just wanted to tell people to think and consider some of these admittedly extreme little elements, which nevertheless do recur fairly regularly throughout human history. — Alan Moore

I believe there's about 78 to 81 members of the Democrat Party who are members of the Communist Party. It's called the Congressional Progressive Caucus. — Allen West

God didn't give you the strength to get back on your feet so that you can run back to the same things that knocked you down. — Marvin Sapp

There is a barbarism in the American soul, and we must protect some of it by law. To root it out is to endanger our lives on the one hand, and our liberty on the other. — Charlie Pierce

I don't necessarily look for what I respond to in a script. I look for things that scare me, and take that as an indication that I should probably do it. I don't want to be bored. I look for challenges. I look for a variety of different things because it's so easy to go the cliche route. — Liana Liberato

You can feel creative tension when you sense the freedom to be creative, the harmony not via compliance only, but through brainstorming. — Pearl Zhu

I'd never even sung in the shower, I'm too mortified. But once I got over the initial fear it was kind of enjoyable. Sondheim's melodies and lyrics are a real pleasure to tromp around in, it's really beautiful stuff. — Johnny Depp

One of the hardest things about writing lyrics is to make the lyrics sit on the music in such a way that you're not aware there was a writer there. — Stephen Sondheim

The thing about Sondheim is that it does get very cerebral. You do need a faculty with words and a love for the lyrics to not just pull it off, but to have an appreciation for it. — Lea Salonga

Sondheim is my god; I love the man. I learned a great deal about writing from his work, his lyrics, and his structure. — Richard LaGravenese

In my prayers every day, which are a combination of Hebrew prayers and Shakespeare and Sondheim lyrics and things people have said to me that I've written down and shoved in my pocket, I also say the name of every person I've ever known who's passed on. — Mandy Patinkin

Music blows lyrics up very quickly, and suddenly they become more than art. They become pompous and they become self-conscious ... I firmly believe that lyrics have to breathe and give the audience's ear a chance to understand what's going on. Particularly in the theater, where you not only have the music, but you've got costume, story, acting, orchestra. There's a lot to take in. — Stephen Sondheim

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

Eumenes had been with her more than 400 years, Lollia nearly as long. Until now not one of her transformations had failed to last 200 years. Was she getting worse at it, or was the strength of the human stock in decline? — Whitley Strieber

Bramble: Your afraid of the King. Admit it.
Mr. Bradford: My lady, who isn't? — Heather Dixon

Music straightjackets a poem and prevents it from breathing on its own, whereas it liberates a lyric. Poetry doesn't need music; lyrics do. — Stephen Sondheim

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

It is true the Shining Isle is smoke and ashes and that darkness is wide over the land. But your long memories have failed you. Of all creatures, you should know that the darkness is seldom complete, and even when it is, the pinprick of light is not long in coming
and finer for the great shroud that surrounds it. — Andrew Peterson

I've always hovered above their stories, nodding in sympathy and thinking how foolish they are, these women, to let these things happen, how undisciplined. And now to be one of them! One of the women with the endless stories that make people nod sympathetically and think: Poor dumb bitch. — Gillian Flynn

I didn't really want to write just lyrics, but I wanted to meet Leonard Bernstein. Music was always the first reason I was writing songs. — Stephen Sondheim

Making lyrics feel natural, sit on music in such a way that you don't feel the effort of the author, so that they shine and bubble and rise and fall, is very, very hard to do. Whereas you can sit at the piano and just play and feel you're making art. — Stephen Sondheim