Stephen Sondheim
“A Lot of People Think...”
[STEPHEN SONDHEIM, spoken]
A lot of people think that a lot of the songs I write are autobiographical. And they think that the characters I write about are me. They think I'm George in Sunday in the Park with George, or I'm Bobby in Company.
But in fact, there's only been one autobiographical song I've ever written, and that was "Opening Doors" in Merrily We Roll Along. It's about two writers trying to bust their way into show business, and their best friend, a girl who's a novelist. And it's about me and it's about Hal Prince and it's about Mary Rodgers and it's about Sheldon Harnick and it's about Jerry Bock. it's about all of us in the fifties knocking on the doors of producers and trying to get heard.