Tonight, tonight, won't be just any night. Tonight there will be no morning star.
Stephen SondheimRead
Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Art seeks to create structure and understanding in a disordered world.
This quote by Stephen Sondheim highlights the fundamental purpose of art: to impose order and clarity in the midst of chaos. It suggests that through artistic expression, creators strive to make sense of their surroundings and experiences, transforming confusion and disorder into something meaningful and beautiful.
Themes
ArtChaosOrderMeaningExpression
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about creativity, I would quote Sondheim to emphasize how artists make sense of the world.
More from Stephen Sondheim
All quotes βAfter the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution, songs became part of the story, as opposed to just entertainments in between comedy scenes.
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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!
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Careful the spell you cast, not just on children. Sometimes the spell may last Past what you can see And turn against you... Careful the tale you tell. That is the spell.
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Swing your razor wide! Sweeney, hold it to the skies!
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Auden said poetry makes nothing happen. But I wonder if the opposite could be true. It could make something happen.
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I am apparently gentle, unstable, and full of pretenses. I will die a poet killed by the nonpoets, will renounce no dream, resign myself to no ugliness, accept nothing of the world but the one I made myself. I wrote, lived, loved like Don Quixote, and on the day of my death I will say: βExcuse me, it was all a dream,β and by that time I may have found one who will say: βNot at all, it was true, absolutely true.β
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Burn, burn tree and fern! Shrivel and scorch! A fizzling torch To light the night for our delight, Ya hey! Bake and toast βem, fry and roast βem! till beards blaze, and eyes glaze; till hair smells and skins crack, fat melts, and bones black in cinders lie beneath the sky! So dwarves shall die, and light the night for our delight, Ya hey! Ya-harri-hey! Ya hoy!
J. R. R. TolkienRead
The ideal artist is he who knows everything, feels everything, experiences everything, and retains his experience in a spirit of wonder and feeds upon it with creative lust.
George BellowsRead
Music speaks directly to the heart. This response, this echo within the heart, is proof that human hearts can transcend the barriers of time and space and nationality. Exchanges in the field of culture can play an important role in enabling people to overcome mistrust and prejudice and build peace.
Daisaku IkedaRead