41 Famous Quotes By Stephen Sondheim, The Man Who Revolutionized Musicals

If I cannot fly, let me sing.

I prefer neurotic people. I like to hear rumblings beneath the surface.

Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.

You're so nice. You're not good, you're not bad, You're just nice. I'm not good, I'm not nice, I'm just right. I'm the witch. You're the world.

At last, my arm is complete again

There's a hole in the world like a big black pit who are filled with people who are filled with shit.

They all deserve to die. Even you, Mrs. Lovett Even I. Because the lives of the wicked should be made brief For the rest of us death would be relief.

Oh if life were made of moments Even now and then a bad one--! But if life were only moments, Then you'd never know you had one.

Work is what you do for others, liebchen. Art is what you do for yourself.

Sometimes people leave you Halfway through the wood Others may decieve you You decide what's good You decide alone But no one is alone

The difference between a cow and a bean is a bean can begin an adventure.

The dumbing down of the country reflects itself on Broadway. The shows get dumber, and the public gets used to them.

One difference between poetry and lyrics is that lyrics sort of fade into the background. They fade on the page and live on the stage when set to music.

Nice is different than good.

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

I read to see myself in other people's lives.

Best to take the moment present As a present for the moment

Slotted spoons don't hold much soup...

Now, this one might be a little stringy, but then again, it's fiddle player." That isn't fiddle player, it's piccolo player." How can you tell?" It's PIPING hot!" Then blow on it first!

Music straightjackets a poem and prevents it from breathing on its own, whereas it liberates a lyric. Poetry doesn't need music; lyrics do.

Swing your razor wide! Sweeney, hold it to the skies!

Let Pirelli's / Miracle Elixir / Activate your roots, sir... Keep it off your boots, sir- / Eats right through. Yes, get Pirelli's! / Use a bottle of it! / Ladies seem to love it... Flies do, too!

It's not so much do what you like as it is that you like what you do.

Children can only grow from something you love to something you lose.

Having just the vision's no solution, everything depends on execution

Unless the object of the singer’s affection is a vampire, surely what Hart means is unphotogenic. Only vampires are unphotographable, but affectionate ‘-enic’ rhymes are hard to come by.

The man i'll never be, Who remembers him?

Anything you do, let it come from you. Then it will be new. Give us more to see...

I was watching him crawl, Back over the wall-! Then bang! Crash! And the lightning flash! And- well, that's another story, Never mind- Anyway...

It's your father's fault that the curse got placed and the place got cursed in the first place.