Stephen Sondheim

Every time one can write a self-deluded song, you are way ahead of the game, way ahead. Self-delusion is the basis of nearly all the great scenes in all the great plays, from 'Oedipus' to 'Hamlet.'

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

When I was growing up, there was no such thing as Off-Broadway. You either got your show on or you didn't.

I happen to like movies and plays about dislikeable people as long as I get to know why they are what they are.

I fell into lyric writing because of music. I backed into it.

If you force yourself to write away from the piano, you come up with more inventive things. If you're too good a piano player, as some composers are, the music may become flavorless and glib. And if you're not a very good pianist, you're limited to the same patterns.

I would have been a geologist.

My idea of heaven is not writing.

In the Rodgers and Hammerstein generation, popular hits came out of shows and movies.

When the song is part of the action and working as dialogue, even two minutes is way too long.

I don't find my life that interesting. The shows, maybe. But not me.

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.

I have, by nature, an analytical mind.

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.

Generally, the best recording is the original cast, because that's the way the piece grew: integrally, with them.

A close-up on screen can say all a song can.

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.

Oscar Hammerstein was a surrogate father during all those many days, and weeks and months when I didn't see my own father.

I really don't want to write a score until the whole show is cast and staged.