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 straightjackets a poem and prevents it from breathing on its own, whereas it liberates a lyric. Poetry doesn’t need music; lyrics do.
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.
I prefer neurotic people. I like to hear rumblings beneath the surface.
Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.
There’s a hole in the world like a big black pit who are filled with people who are filled with shit.
The dumbing down of the country reflects itself on Broadway. The shows get dumber, and the public gets used to them.
I chose and my world was shaken, so what? The choice may have been mistaken, the choosing was not.
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.
Musical comedies aren’t written they are re-written.
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.
I’m interested in the theater because I’m interested in communication with audiences. Otherwise I would be in concert music.
One of the hardest things about writing lyrics is to make the lyrics sit on the music in such a way that you’re not aware there was a writer there.
I’m very opinionated about movie musicals when they’re adapted from live shows. You’ll sit still for a three-minute song in a theater. But in movies, a glance from someone’s eyes will tell you the whole story in a few seconds.
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.
Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.