I don't care how good a song is. If it holds back the storyline, stalls the plot, your audience will reject it.

- Dorothy Fields

I began to be impressed by what made a good book-how you needed to have a sensible story, a plot that developed, with a beginning, a middle, and an e…

- Dorothy Fields

Elizabeth Barrett Browning could write a poem two pages long. Could she have brought it to a music publisher?

- Dorothy Fields

A songwriter should have friends who are similarly interested; should move about in the milieu of work he has chosen for himself.

- Dorothy Fields

A song doesn't just come on. I've always had to tease it out, squeeze it out. 'No thesaurus can give you those words, no rhyming dictionary. They mus…

- Dorothy Fields

If you don't have a story that will hold the audience, you won't have a successful show.

- Dorothy Fields

A song must move the story ahead. A song must take the place of dialogue. If a song halts the show, pushes it back, stalls it, the audience won't buy…

- Dorothy Fields

I do not think men have more talent. There are a great many women in the arts; novelists, painters, sculptors, poets-but the proportion is far lower …

- Dorothy Fields

The songwriter mustn't fall in love with his own song. If it doesn't belong, he can't push it into a show. Let him save it; maybe it'll fit in anothe…

- Dorothy Fields