Stephen Sondheim

Just remember, Someone is on your side (our side) Someone else is not While we're seeing our side Maybe we forgot: they are not alone. No one is alone.

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.

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.

There's something inimical about the camera and song.

I certainly wanted my name in lights. I wanted my name on a marquee. I wanted recognition on Broadway.

So here's to the girls on the go_x000D_ Everybody tries._x000D_ Look into their eyes,_x000D_ And you'll see what they know:_x000D_ Everybody dies._x000D_ A toast to that invincible bunch,_x000D_ The dinosaurs surviving the crunch._x000D_ Let's hear it for the ladies who lunch_x000D_ Everybody rise!

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.

I have inherited my father's sense of humour about myself. It's a lot more pleasant to make fun of yourself than when someone else does.

When the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you've written.

When I'm writing a song, I try to be the character.

I'm a great audience. I cry very easily. I suspend disbelief in two seconds.

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.

I'm very opinionated about movie musicals when they're adapted from live shows. You'll sit still for a three-minute song in a theater. But in movies, a glance from someone's eyes will tell you the whole story in a few seconds.

Musicals are plays, but the last collaborator is your audience, so you've got to wait 'til the last collaborator comes in before you can complete the collaboration.

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

Math and music are intimately related. Not necessarily on a conscious level, but sure.

I have, by nature, an analytical mind.

On stage, generally speaking, the story is stopped or held back by songs, because that's the convention. Audiences enjoy the song and the singer, that's the point.

The more restrictions you have, the easier anything is to write.

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.

Everyone I used to play with has either given up or is dead.