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"Lyrics have to be underwritten. That's why poets generally make poor lyric writers because the language is too rich. You get drowned in it."

Stephen Sondheim, American Composer

Language, Poets, Poor, Writers

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"Lyrics have to be underwritten. That's why poets generally make poor lyric writers because the language is too rich. You get drowned in it."

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"Proletarian language is dictated by hunger. The poor chew words to fill their bellies."

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"A lexicographer a writer of dictionaries a harmless drudge."

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Explore more quotes by Stephen Sondheim

"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."

"When you know your cast well and their strengths and weaknesses, you can start writing for them, just the way Shakespeare wrote for his actors."

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

"My mother wanted me off her hands. She was a working woman. She designed clothes, and she was a celebrity collector. It's my mother's ambition to be a celebrity."

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

"Nowadays, there are sometimes more producers than there are people in the cast, because it takes that much money to put a show on."

"Everyone I used to play with has either given up or is dead."

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

"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."

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

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