Dorothy Fields Song Quotations

I don't care how good a song is. If it holds back the storyline, stalls the plot, your audience will reject it.

A song doesn't just come on. I've always had to tease it out, squeeze it out. 'No thesaurus can give you those words, no rhyming dictionary. They must happen out of you.

A song just doesn't come on. I've always had to tease it out, squeeze it out.

A rhyme doesn't make a song.

The songwriter mustn't fall in love with his own song. If it doesn't belong, he can't push it into a show. Let him save it; maybe it'll fit in another show.

A song must move the story ahead. A song must take the place of dialogue. If a song halts the show, pushes it back, stalls it, the audience won't buy it; they'll be unhappy.

I do not think men have more talent. There are a great many women in the arts; novelists, painters, sculptors, poets-but the proportion is far lower in the field of song writing.

I do think song writing is a man's game. It requires push, energy, movement, mixing; it is a field that is and has been dominated by men.

The audience, going along with the story, knows when the song is stuck in, feels it, resents it and can't enjoy it, and the song fails.