Stumbling upon HBO’s “Six by Sondheim” , I heard this and was entranced:
I learned the only reason to write is for love. Failure taught me you write out of passion. ~Stephen Sondheim
Searching the net I found more here in this article. Quoting from it:
Sondheim said he also learned an important lesson from his biggest failure, the 1965 musical “Do I Hear a Waltz?”
“We did it out of expediency and to make money,” Sondheim said. “It was easy to write but had no passion and no blood. There was no reason for it to be. I learned the only reason to write is for love. Failure taught me you write out of passion.”
Reflecting on this:
What motivates you?
Where is your passion?
The article really touched me, not only the above, but this passage as well:
Another highlight for Sondheim was writing the anthem “Sunday” for the 1984 musical “Sunday in Park with George,” about the French pointillist painter Georges Seurat. “Sunday” was written from the perspective of the people in Seurat’s painting “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.”
“These people don’t know they’re going to be immortal,” Sondheim said. “In ‘Sunday,’ they’re acknowledging that. When I wrote that, I cried. That’s how I feel about art — there’s no beginning and no end.”
So beautifully said.