STEPHEN SONDHEIM

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

Musical comedies aren't written, they are rewritten.

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

Everybody faces a blank piece of paper, no matter what they've written or painted or composed before. I can't imagine approaching every single new project with-without doubt.

I played the organ when I went to military school, when I was 10. They had a huge organ, the second-largest pipe organ in New York State. I loved all the buttons and the gadgets. I've always been a gadget man.

Every single song I've ever written is sung by a character created by somebody else. Some might have a jaundiced view of love, some don't. But none of these songs is me singing - not a single one.

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

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

The nice thing about doing a crossword puzzle is, you know there is a solution.

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

When you know your cast well and their strengths and weaknesses, you can start writing for them, just the way Shakespeare wrote for his actors.

I was a mathematician by nature, and still am - I just knew I didn't want to be a mathematician. So I decided not to take any mathematics courses.

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.'

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.

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

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.

Gotta watch out for directors.

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

You can't have personal investors anymore because it's too expensive, so you have to have corporate investment or a lot of rich people.

My mother wanted me off her hands. She was a working woman. She designed clothes, and she was a celebrity collector. It's my mother's ambition to be a celebrity.

I would have been a geologist.

By the time I was 22, I was a professional. A young and flawed professional, but not an amateur.

I was raised to be charming, not sincere.

Nowadays, there are sometimes more producers than there are people in the cast, because it takes that much money to put a show on.

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