Stephen Sondheim

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

“Todd:I had him!His throat was there beneath my hand.No, I had him!His throat was there and now he'll never come again.Mrs. Lovett: Easy now, hush love hushI keep telling you, Whats your rush?Todd: When? Why did I wait?You told me to wait -Now he'll never come again.There's a hole in the world like a great black pitAnd it's filled with people who are filled with shitAnd the vermin of the world inhabit it.But not for long...They all deserve to die.Tell you why, Mrs. Lovett, tell you why.Because in all of the whole human raceMrs. Lovett, there are two kinds of men and only twoThere's the one staying put in his proper placeAnd the one with his foot in the other one's faceLook at me, Mrs Lovett, look at you.No, we all deserve to dieEven you, Mrs Lovett, even I!Because the lives of the wicked should be made briefFor the rest of us death will be a reliefWe all deserve to die.And I'll never see JohannaNo I'll never hug my girl to me - finished!Alright! You sir, how about a shave?Come and visit your good friend Sweeney.You sir, too sir? Welcome to the grave.I will have vengenance.I will have salvation.Who sir, you sir?No ones in the chair, Come on! Come on!Sweeney's. waiting. I want you bleeders.You sir! Anybody!Gentlemen now don't be shy!Not one man, no, nor ten men.Nor a hundred can assuage me.I will have you!And I will get him back even as he gloatsIn the meantime I'll practice on less honorable throats.And my Lucy lies in ashesAnd I'll never see my girl again.But the work waits!I'm alive at last!And I'm full of joy! ps. love the movie the performance that Johnny Depp did was amazing and he sang amazing.”

“My FriendTodd: These are my friendsSee how they glistenSee this one shineHow he smilesIn the lightMy friend!My faithful friend!Speak to me, friendWhisper, I'll listenI know, I knowYou've been lockedOut of sightAll these years!Like me, my friend!Well, I've come homeTo find you waitingHomeAnd we're togetherAnd we'll do wondersWon't we?You there, my friendMrs. Lovett: I'm your friend too, Mr. ToddTodd: Come, let me hold youMrs. Lovett: If you only knew, Mr. ToddTodd: Now, with a sighMrs. Lovett: Ooh, Mr. Todd!Todd: You grow warm in my handMrs. Lovett: You're warm in my handTodd: My friend!Mrs. Lovett: You've come home!Todd: My clever friend!Mrs. Lovett: Always had a fondness for you, I didTodd: Rest now, my friendMrs. Lovett: Never you fear, Mr. ToddTodd: Soon I'll unfold youMrs. Lovett: You can move in here, Mr. ToddTodd: Soon you'll knowTodd and Mrs. Lovett: Splendours you'd never have dreamed all your daysMrs. Lovett: Will be yours!Todd: My lucky friend!Mrs. Lovett: I'm your friend! And you're mine!Todd: Till now your shineMrs. Lovett: Don't they shine beautiful?Todd: Was merely silver!Mrs. Lovett: Silver's good enough for me, Mr. TTodd: FriendYou shall drip rubiesYou'll soon drip preciousRubiesAt last, my arm is complete again!”

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

“We lose things.And then we choose things.And there are Louis'sAnd there are Georges-Well, Louis'sAnd George.”

“How many times do you get to be 35?Eleven”

“No one has ever loved meAs deeply as you.No one has truly shown meWhat love could be like until now:Not pretty or safe or easyBut more than I ever knew.Love within reason -That isn't love.And I've learned that from you..”

“Careful the things you say,Children will listen.Careful the things you do,Children will see.And learn.Children may not obeyBut children will listen.Children will look to youFor which way to turn,To learn what to be.Careful before you say,"Listen to me."Children will listen.”

“Sometimes people leave youHalfway through the woodOthers may decieve youYou decide what's goodYou decide aloneBut no one is alone”

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

“Loving you is not a choice,It's who I am.Loving you is not a choiceAnd not much reason to rejoice,But it gives me purposeGives me voice to say to the world:This is why I liveYou are why I live.Loving you is why I doThe things I doLoving you is not in my control.But loving you, I have a goalFor what's left of my life...I would live,And I would die for you.”

“Nice is different than good.”

“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.”

“Slotted spoons don't hold much soup...”

“I have successfully avoided enjoying opera all my life.-quoted in Entertainment Weeky, http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20548...”

“Into the Woods, then Out of the Woods..and home before dark!”

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

“Some of us don't like the way you've been telling it.”

“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.”

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

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

“Automobile in America,Chromium steel in America,Wire-spoke wheel in America,Very big deal in America!Immigrant goes to America,Many hellos in America,Nobody knows in America,Puerto Rico's in America!I like the shores of America!Comfort is yours in America!Knobs on the doors in America!Wall-to-wall floors in America!”

“Alright! You sir, you sir, how about a shave?Come and visit your good friend Sweeney.You sir, too sir? Welcome to the grave.I will have vengenance.I will have salvation.Who sir, you sir?No ones in the chair, Come on! Come on!Sweeney's. waiting. I want you bleeders.You sir! Anybody!Gentlemen now don't be shy!Not one man, no, nor ten men.Nor a hundred can assuage me.I will have you!And I will get him back even as he gloatsIn the meantime I'll practice on less honorable throats.And my Lucy lies in ashesAnd I'll never see my girl again.But the work waits!I'm alive at last!And I'm full of joy!”

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

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

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

“TODD:The history of the world, my love --LOVETT:Save a lot of graves,Do a lot of relatives favors!TODD:Is those below serving those up above!LOVETT:Ev'rybody shaves,So there should be plenty of flavors!TODD:How gratifying for once to knowBOTH:That those above will serve those down below!”

“There's a hole in the world like a great black pitand the vermin of the world inhabit itand its morals aren't worth what a pig could spitand it goes by the name of London.At the top of the hole sit the privileged fewMaking mock of the vermin in the lonely zooturning beauty to filth and greed...I too have sailed the world and seen its wonders,for the cruelty of men is as wonderous as Perubut there's no place like London!”

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

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

“There was a barber and his wife. And he was beautiful. A proper artist with a knife but they transported him for life. And he was beautiful”

“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...”

“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!”

“They hear drums, we hear music.”

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

“Was that me? Yes it was. Was that him? No it wasn't.. Just a trick of the woods! Just a moment, One peculiar passing moment. Must it all be either less or more, Either plain or grand? Is it always 'or'? Is it never 'and'? That's what woods are for: For those moments in the woods... 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. First a witch, then a child, then a Prince, then a moment-- Who can live in the woods? And to get what you wish, only just for a moment-- These are dangerous woods.. Let the moment go.. Don't forget it for a moment, though. Just remembering you had an 'and,' when you're back to 'or,' Makes the 'or' mean more than is did before. Now I understand--And it's time to leave the woods.”

“Bit by bit, putting it together...Piece by piece, only way to make a work of art.Every moment makes a contribution,Every little detail plays a part.Having just the vision's no solution,Everything depends on execution,Putting it together, that's what counts.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Music blows lyrics up very quickly, and suddenly they become more than art. They become pompous and they become self-conscious ... I firmly believe that lyrics have to breathe and give the audience's ear a chance to understand what's going on. Particularly in the theater, where you not only have the music, but you've got costume, story, acting, orchestra. There's a lot to take in.”

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

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

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

“At last, my arm is complete again”

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

“If I cannot fly, let me sing.”

“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!”