Tonight, tonight, won't be just any night. Tonight there will be no morning star.
Stephen SondheimRead
The more restrictions you have, the easier anything is to write.
Interpretation
Restrictions can enhance creativity and simplify the writing process.
Stephen Sondheim suggests that having limitations or restrictions can actually make the writing process easier and more focused. When a writer has a clear set of boundaries, they can channel their creativity more effectively, as these constraints force them to think innovatively within a defined framework, often leading to more impactful and concise work.
In practice
This quote can be used in a workshop on creative writing to inspire participants to embrace constraints.
Tonight, tonight, won't be just any night. Tonight there will be no morning star.
After the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution, songs became part of the story, as opposed to just entertainments in between comedy scenes.
Musical comedies aren't written, they are rewritten.
Let Pirelli's / Miracle Elixir / Activate your roots, sir... Keep it off your boots, sir- / Eats right through. Yes, get Pirelli's! / Use a bottle of it! / Ladies seem to love it... Flies do, too!
Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.
Careful the spell you cast, not just on children. Sometimes the spell may last Past what you can see And turn against you... Careful the tale you tell. That is the spell.
My poems are naughty, but my life is pure.
If I'm honest I have to tell you I still read fairy-tales and I like them best of all.
As writers go, I have a skin of average thickness. I am pleased by a good review, disappointed by a bad. None of it penetrates far enough to influence the thing I write next.
I change the language with which I use my voice. In opera, I know I have an orchestra behind me; I have to communicate to people very far from me.
When I provided the disembodied arm as the logo for 'The Man With the Golden Arm,' it was the first time an advertising-publicity campaign was based on a single symbol. Until then film companies used a variety of symbols and photographs to cover all bets. The concept of using one logo was mine and Otto Preminger's.
I decided very early that I wanted to write. But I didn't think of it as a career. I didn't even think of it as a profession... It was the most exciting thing, the most powerful thing, the most wonderful thing to do with my life.
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