Quotes by Lyricists

The last time I saw Paris.Her heart was warm and gay.
Oscar Hammerstein II
For a painter, the Mecca of the world, for study, for inspiration and for living is here on this star called Paris. Just look at it, no wonder so many artists have come here and called it home. Brother, if you can't paint in Paris, you'd better give up and marry the boss's daughter.
Alan Jay Lerner
The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success. Talent is only a starting point in business. You've got to keep working that talent.
Irving Berlin
The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success.
Irving Berlin
The World would be a safer place If someone had a plan Before exploring Outer Space To find the Inner Man.
E.Y. Harburg
No matter where I run I meet myself there.
Dorothy Fields
If you strike a thorn or rose Keep a-goin! If it hails or if it snows Keep a-goin! 'Tain't no use to sit and whine 'Cause the fish ain't on your line Bait your hook an' keep on tryin'. Keep a-goin!
Frank L. Stanton
There is a very real relationship both quantitatively and qualitatively between what you contribute and what you get out of this world.
Oscar Hammerstein II
You got a harem of seventy girls you don't get to know any of them very well.
Billy Rose
Never invest your money in anything that eats or needs repairing.
Billy Rose
No matter where I run I meet myself there.
Dorothy Fields
If you strike a thorn or rose Keep a-goin! If it hails or if it snows Keep a-goin! 'Tain't no use to sit and whine 'Cause the fish ain't on your line Bait your hook an' keep on tryin'. Keep a-goin!
Frank L. Stanton
There is a very real relationship both quantitatively and qualitatively between what you contribute and what you get out of this world.
Oscar Hammerstein II
You got a harem of seventy girls you don't get to know any of them very well.
Billy Rose
Never invest your money in anything that eats or needs repairing.
Billy Rose
Sure I love the dear silver that shines in your hair And the brow that's all furrowed and wrinkled with care. I kiss the dear fingers so toil-worn for me Oh God bless you and keep you Mother Machree.
Rida Johnson Young
Never invest your money in anything that eats or needs repairing.
Billy Rose
Over a period of time it's been driven home to me that I'm not going to be the most popular writer in the world so I'm always happy when anything in any way is accepted.
Stephen Sondheim
If you wish to grow thinner diminish your dinner.
H. S. Leigh
Youth I Stay close to the young and a little rubs off.
Alan Jay Lerner
When you're all dressed up and no place to go.
Benjamin Hapgood Burt
Musical comedies aren't written they are re-written.
Stephen Sondheim
We have lived and loved together Through many changing years We have shared each other's gladness And wept each other's tears.
Charles Jefferys
Oozing charm from every pore He oiled his way around the floor.
Alan Jay Lerner
Sweetest li'l feller everybody knows Dunno what to call him but he's mighty lak' a rose Lookin' at his mammy wid eyes so shiny blue Mek' you think that Heav'n is comin' clost ter you.
Frank L. Stanton
If I'd known I was gonna live this long (100 years) I'd have taken better care of myself.
James Hubert Blake
Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you take it.
Irving Berlin
I'd like to add her initial to my monogram...
Ira Gershwin
A folktale without a moral is merely a whimsy.
Stephen Sondheim
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....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.
Stephen Sondheim
Was that me? Yes it was. Was that him? No it wasn't..t Just a trick of the woods!t Just a moment,t One peculiar passing moment.t Must it all be either less or more,t Either plain or grand?t Is it always 'or'?t Is it never 'and'?t That's what woods are for:t For those moments in the woods...t Oh, if life were made of moments,t Even now and then a bad one--!t But if life were only moments,t Then you'd never know you had one.t First a witch, then a child, then a Prince, then a moment--t Who can live in the woods?t And to get what you wish, only just for a moment--t These are dangerous woods..t Let the moment go..t Don't forget it for a moment, though.t Just remembering you had an 'and,' when you're back to 'or,'t Makes the 'or' mean more than is did before.t Now I understand--And it's time to leave the woods.
Stephen Sondheim
All the heroes of tomorrow are the heretics of today.
E.Y. Harburg
Never stop loving yourself, for how can you truly love someone if you don't love yourself first. And never be afraid to love, for it is one of the most beautiful uglist things of this world.
Adrian Ross
Everybody ought to have a lower East Side in their life.
Irving Berlin
East Side, West Side, all around the town,The tots sang "Ring-a-rosie, London Bridge is falling Down;Boys and Girls together, me and Mamie O'Rorke, Tripped the light fantastic on the sidewalks of New York.
James W. Blake
Yet the only girl who'd love him is his mother...' - A Girl Worth Fighting For (song)
David Zippel
Why do you write like you're running out of time?
Lin-Manuel Miranda
[ELIZA]You and your words flooded my senses, your sentences left me defenseless. You built me palaces out of paragraphs, you built cathedrals.
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Though it's fearful, Though it's deep, though it's dark And though you may lose the path, Though you may encounter wolves, You can't just act, You have to listen. you can't just act, You have to think. Though it's dark, There are always wolves, There are always spells, There are always beans, Or a giant dwells there. So into the woods you go again, You have to every now and then. Into the woods, no telling when, Be ready for the journey. Into the woods, but not too fast or what you wish, you lose at last. Into the woods, but mind the past. Into the woods, but mind the future. Into the woods, but not to stray, Or tempt the wolf, or steal from the giant-- The way is dark, The light is dim, But now there's you, me, her, and him. The chances look small, The choices look grim, But everything you learn there Will help when you return there. The light is getting dimmer.. I think I see a glimmer-- Into the woods--you have to grope, But that's the way you learn to cope. Into the woods to find there's hope Of getting through the journey. Into the woods, each time you go, There's more to learn of what you know. Into the woods, but not too slow-- Into the woods, it's nearing midnight-- Into the woods to mind the wolf, To heed the witch, to honor the giant, To mind, to heed, to find, to think, to teach, to join, to go to the Festival! Into the woods, Into the woods, Into the woods, Then out of the woods-- And happy ever after!
Stephen Sondheim
Hammacher Schlemmer is selling a shelter,worthy of Kubla Khan's Xanadu dome;Plushy and swanky, with posh hanky pankythat affluent Yankees can really callhome.Hammacher Schlemmer is selling a shelter,a push-button palace, fluorescent repose;Electric devices for facing a crisiswith frozen fruit ices and cinema shows.Hammacher Schlemmer is selling a shelterall chromium kitchens and rubber-tiled dorms;With waterproof portals to echo the chortlesof weatherproof mortals in hydrogen storms.What a great come-to-glory emporium!To enjoy a deluxe moratorium,Where nuclear heat can beguile the elitein a creme-de-la-creme crematorium.
E.Y. Harburg
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!
Stephen Sondheim
New solutions win by virtue of adoption, and they don't get adopted if they're bad solutions.
John Perry Barlow
Love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love, cannot be killed or swept aside.
Lin-Manuel Miranda
My wife's the reason anything gets done, she nudges me towards promise by degrees. She is a perfect symphony of one our son is her most beautiful reprise. We chase the melodies that seem to find us until they're finished songs and start to play. When senseless acts of tragedy remind us that nothing here is promised--not one day. This show is proof that history remembers. We live in times when hate and fear seem stronger. We rise and fall and light from dying embers--remembrances that hope and love last longer. And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside. I sing Vanessa's symphony. Eliza tells her story. Now, fill the world with music, love, and pride.
Lin-Manuel Miranda
The world would not be in such a snarl, had Marx been Groucho instead of Karl.
Irving Berlin
There is a very real relationship, both quantitatively and qualitatively, between what you contribute and what you get out of this world.
Oscar Hammerstein II
Everyone seems to be playing well within the boundaries of his usual rule set. I have yet to hear anyone say something that seemed likely to mitigate the idiocy of this age.
John Perry Barlow
Don’t try to be different. Just be good. To be good is different enough.
Arthur Freed
The whole world is festering with unhappy souls: The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles' Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch; and I don't like anybody very much!
Sheldon Harnick
In these dangerous times, where it seems that the world is ripping apart at the seams, we all can learn how to survive from those who stare death squarely in the face every day and [we] should reach out to each other and bond as a community, rather than hide from the terrors of life at the end of the millennium.
Jonathan Larson
Anytime you write something, you go through so many phases. You go through the I’m a Fraud phase. You go through the I’ll Never Finish phase. And every once in a while you think, What if I actually have created what I set out to create, and it’s received as such?
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Meggie Folchart: Having writer's block? Maybe I can help.Fenoglio: Oh yes, that's right. You want to be a writer, don't you?Meggie Folchart: You say that as if it's a bad thing.Fenoglio: Oh no, it's just a lonely thing. Sometimes the world you create on the page seems more friendly and alive than the world you actually live in.
David Lindsay-Abaire
Will we reach a friendlier shore?Will we find a haven once more?Where we'll beIn a place of miraclesNow we leave our homeFor a place of miracles Romanies again must roamCould there be a country kinder to our race?In a place of miracles
Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz
Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave;Weep o'er the erring one, lift up the fallen,Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save.
Fanny Crosby
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!
Stephen Sondheim
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.
Stephen Sondheim
Love me for what I amNot what I try to be.Love me for what I am.I amA person who likes to lie too much.I try too muchTo impress other people...Often my inferiors.
William Finn
Love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside.
Lin-Manuel Miranda
I chose and my world was shaken, so what? The choice may have been mistaken, the choosing was not.
Stephen Sondheim
Sentiment has never been unpopular except with a few sick persons who are made sicker by the sight of a child, a glimpse of a wedding, or the thought of a happy home.
Oscar Hammerstein II