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"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."

Stephen Sondheim, American Composer

Music, Poetry, Difference

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"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."

Exlpore more Music quotes

"I'm half Jewish, I'm half black, I look in-between. I dress funny. I play all these different styles of music on one record. It's like, What is he doing?"

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"I think I first realized I wanted to be in country music and be an artist when I was 10. And I started dragging my parents to festivals, and fairs, and karaoke contests, and I did that for about a year before I came to Nashville for the first time. I was 11 and I had this demo CD of me singing Dixie Chicks and Leanne Rimes songs."

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"Music when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order, and when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder."

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"When I first came to Nashville, people hardly gave country music any respect. We lived in old cars and dirty hotels, and we ate when we could."

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"When there's music in your soul, there's soul in your music."

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"It is one thing to record an album but it's a huge difference when people play it and listen to it and embrace it the way that I do. It has always been my dream to get my music out to the world and have people hear it."

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"What is my definition of jazz? 'Safe sex of the highest order."

Kurt Vonnegut, American Author

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"What kind of songs do you like? she asked."The ones that remind me of you," I said."

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"I hope America sees I am a goofy guy andI'm kind a crazy, I hope they see that I am a musician aswell, that I have music all around my body - I'm just exfoliating music, and I just hope America sees that."

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"It was very satisfying knowing I could come in not really knowing what I was going to do, and at the end of the session feeling that I'd really done interesting guitar work and knowing that I'd really contributed to the music."

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Explore more quotes by Stephen Sondheim

"Musicals are, by nature, theatrical, meaning poetic, meaning having to move the audience's imagination and create a suspension of disbelief, by which I mean there's no fourth wall."

"By the time I was 22, I was a professional. A young and flawed professional, but not an amateur."

"I firmly believe lyrics have to breathe and give the audience's ear a chance to understand what's going on. Particularly in the theater, where you have costume, story, acting, orchestra."

"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."

"I chose and my world was shaken. So what? The choice may have been mistaken; the choosing was not. You have to move on."

"The worst thing you can do is censor yourself as the pencil hits the paper. You must not edit until you get it all on paper. If you can put everything down, stream-of-consciousness, you'll do yourself a service."

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

"Every writer I've ever spoken to feels fraudulent in some way or other."

"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."

"When I was growing up, there was no such thing as Off-Broadway. You either got your show on or you didn't."

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