Stephen Sondheim Quotes

A good puzzle, it's a fair thing. Nobody is lying. It's very clear, and the problem depends just on you.

An intellectual challenge presents itself? I am in bliss. Instantly, it brings forth the notion of triumph.

Math, it's a puzzle to me. I love figuring out puzzles.

I love doing the 'New York Times' crossword puzzle, even on the days I can't finish it.

I have certainly enjoyed puzzles since an early age, and things that look like impossible things are often particularly intriguing.

I can do some of the number puzzles.

Writing songs and lyrics is not that different from doing the 'Times' crossword every morning. They both give you a good mental workout.

I do a mind game every day. I play chess, sudoku. I learn something different: a language, a few words of a different language.

It is intelligence that brings order, not discipline.

People love solving puzzles, and you always love it when somebody smarter than you is solving puzzles.

Chess problems are the hymn-tunes of mathematics.

Puzzles are like songs - A good puzzle can give you all the pleasure of being duped that a mystery story can. It has surface innocence, surprise, the revelation of a concealed meaning, and the catharsis of solution.

Sometimes I'll work through the crossword sections of three separate papers.

I think that, at the end of the day, I'm drawn to a certain level of ambiguous storytelling that requires hard thought and work in the same way that the 'New York Times' crossword puzzle does: Sometimes you just want to put it down or throw it out the window, but there's a real rewarding sense if you feel like you've cracked it.

I'm a puzzle doer.

I do the 'New York Times' crossword puzzle every morning to keep the old grey matter ticking.

Think until it hurts.

Crossword puzzles, Sudoku... I'm good at all those things. It's not daily, but I'll do stuff on the airplane. I love playing chess. It's my favorite game.

When I was four or five, I would organise my cars and my action figures. I needed some kind of structure, I think.

Math is my favorite subject. It's the universal language. I like the fact that wherever you go in the whole world, two plus two will still be four.

I have a little Nintendo DS, and I play these brain games that are supposed to stimulate your mind.

Engineering stimulates the mind.

I often lose myself in the Sudoku-like challenges of making a book work.

I love doing crosswords, it's so important to keep the brain going.

Chess is intellectual gymnastics.