Stephen sondheim

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

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

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...

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.

When the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you've written.

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

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

Gotta watch out for directors.

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