I played the organ when I went to military school, when I was 10. They had a huge organ, the second-largest pipe organ in New York State. I loved all the buttons and the gadgets. I've always been a gadget man.

Next quotes

• Stephen Sondheim:

  Math and music are intimately related. Not necessarily on a conscious level, but sure.

• Stephen Sondheim:

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

• Stephen Sondheim:

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

• Stephen Sondheim:

  I fell into lyric writing because of music. I backed into it.

• Stephen Sondheim:

  I would have been a geologist.

• Stephen Sondheim:

  Oscar Hammerstein was a surrogate father during all those many days, and weeks and months when I di

• Stephen Sondheim:

  My mother wanted me off her hands. She was a working woman. She designed clothes, and she was a cel

• Stephen Sondheim:

  Lyrics have to be underwritten. That's why poets generally make poor lyric writers because the lang

• Stephen Sondheim:

  I firmly believe lyrics have to breathe and give the audience's ear a chance to understand what's g

• Stephen Sondheim:

  Gotta watch out for directors.