I don’t listen to recordings of my songs. I don’t avoid it, I just don’t go out of my way to do it.
Every day a little death.
I’m before him on my knees, and he kisses me He assumes I lose my reason and I do. Men are stupid, men are vain, Love’s disgusting, love’s insane, A humiliating business-oh how true.
Perpetual anticipation is good for the soul but it’s bad for the heart.
Swing your razor wide! Sweeney, hold it to the skies!
The man i’ll never be, Who remembers him?
The movie adaptations of stage musicals that I’ve seen, without exception, in my opinion don’t work. A lot of people would disagree with me.
You can’t have personal investors anymore because it’s too expensive, so you have to have corporate investment or a lot of rich people.
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.
I played the organ when I went to military school, when I was 10. They had a huge organ, the second-largest pipe organ in New York State. I loved all the buttons and the gadgets. I’ve always been a gadget man.
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.
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.
I was raised to be charming, not sincere.
I really don’t want to write a score until the whole show is cast and staged.
I read to see myself in other people’s lives.
So here’s to the girls on the go- Everybody tries Look into their eyes and you’ll see what they know: Everybody dies. A toast to that invincible bunch – The dinosaurs surviving the crunch – Let’s hear it for the ladies who lunch – Everybody rise!
You move just a finger, say the slightest word, something’s bound to linger-be heard.
Teaching is a sacred profession. And art is a form of teaching.
To wish and wait From day to day Will never keep The wolves away.
There’s something inimical about the camera and song.