Sondheim Lyrics Quotes

#1. 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

#2. 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

#3. 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

#4. 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

#5. It has been said that Ernest Hemingway would rewrite scenes
until they pleased him, often thirty or forty times. Hemingway,
critics claimed, was a genius. Was it his genius that drove
him to work hard, or was it hard work that resulted in works
of genius?

James N. Frey

#6. 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

#7. On Writing: A multitude of improbabilities can be forgiven as long as enough plausibility has been established.

Danielle Ackley-McPhail

#8. I'm not trying to make friends, I'm trying to make money.

Kevin O'Leary

#9. 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

#10. 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

#11. There's some things we can't think because we don't know the words.

Terry Pratchett

#12. Make your enemies bleed.

Omar F. Hashimi

#13. In the past, as now, [Hollywood] was a stamping ground for tastelessness, violence, and hyperbole, but once upon a time it turned out a product which sweetened the flavor of life all over the world.

Anita Loos

#14. The more you know, the more you will be able to appreciate the beauty of life and your heart will desire to learn.

Debasish Mridha

#15. The secret of happiness is unconditional acceptance.

Debasish Mridha

#16. 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

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

Charles Busch

#18. When new artists come out and they're not being cosigned or some company doesn't have a stake in it, or someone's not getting paid under the table to produce the whole record or bring it to video, the artist really suffers.

Pharoahe Monch

#19. I was always a bit old for my age, then suddenly I'm on set, working alongside the adults, skipping school completely for two years.

Richard Madden

#20. Homeless shelters, child hunger, and child suffering have become normalized in the richest nation on earth. It's time to reset our moral compass and redefine how we measure success.

Marian Wright Edelman

#21. 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

#22. 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

#23. Meetings run best when there are clear rules or norms to follow. These are sometimes difficult to set at the start of the meeting. People may feel reluctant to speak up and suggest rules or there may be pressure to start discussing the agenda items.

Ingrid Bens

#24. One can't live with one's finger everlastingly on one's pulse.

Joseph Conrad

#25. 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

#26. 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