Puzzles are like songs - A good puzzle can give you all the pleasure of being duped that a mystery story can. It has surface innocence, surprise, the revelation of a concealed meaning, and the catharsis of solution.
Stephen SondheimYou'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.
Stephen SondheimIt should be interesting to see two entirely different ways to treat a story, geared for two entirely different kinds of audience.
Stephen SondheimThe situation's fraught, Fraughter than I thought, With horrible, impossible possibilities!
Stephen SondheimThe last collaborator is your audience ... when the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you've written. Things that seem to work well -- work in a sense of carry the story forward and be integral to the piece -- suddenly become a little less relevant or a little less functional or a little overlong or a little overweight or a little whatever. And so you start reshaping from an audience.
Stephen Sondheim