“A folktale without a moral is merely a whimsy.”
Source: Look, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics, 1981-2011, With Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes, and Miscellany
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Famous Stephen Sondheim Quotes
Source: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Source: Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics, 1954-1981, With Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines, and Anecdotes
Source: Into the Woods
“Best to take the moment present as a present for the moment. . .”
Source: Into the Woods
“To wish and wait From day to day Will never keep The wolves away.”
Source: Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street: a musical thriller
“Any moment, big or small, Is a moment, after all. Seize the moment, skies may fall Any moment.”
Source: Into the Woods
“Anything you do, let it come from you. Then it will be new.”
Source: Wordplays 5: An Anthology of New American Drama
“Having just the vision's no solution, everything depends on execution”
Source: Wordplays 5: An Anthology of New American Drama
“I've always preferred actors who sing to singers who act in all the shows I've done.”
“I don't write songs apart from theatrical pieces. I'm not interested in writing songs qua songs.”
“If the end is right, it justifies the beans!”
Source: Into the Woods
“It's not so much do what you like as it is that you like what you do.”
Source: Wordplays 5: An Anthology of New American Drama
“Everyone tells tiny lies, what's important really is the size.”
“Only capitalists get photographers.”
Source: Assassins: libretto/vocal book
“Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor.”
Source: Into the Woods