Best quotes by Stephen Sondheim on Song

Checkout quotes by Stephen Sondheim on Song

• ‟ I was essentially trained by Oscar Hammerstein to think of songs as one-act plays, to move a song from point A to point B dramatically.

  - Stephen Sondheim
  

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

  - Stephen Sondheim
  

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

  - Stephen Sondheim
  

• ‟ If you're dealing with a musical in which you're trying to tell a story, it's got to sound like speech. At the same time it's got to be a song.

  - Stephen Sondheim
  

• ‟ There's something inimical about the camera and song.

  - Stephen Sondheim
  

• ‟ On stage, generally speaking, the story is stopped or held back by songs, because that's the convention. Audiences enjoy the song and the singer, that's the point.

  - Stephen Sondheim
  

• ‟ I'm always conscious of what I'm writing, conscious of what the actor may ask me. I have a defense for nearly every line in the song.

  - Stephen Sondheim
  

• ‟ When I'm writing a song, I try to be the character.

  - Stephen Sondheim