A composer is not only an architect but also an inventor, and he should not build houses in which he cannot live.

I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge.

I haven't understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it.

One has a nose. The nose scents and it chooses. An artist is simply a kind of pig snouting truffles.

My God, so much I like to drink Scotch that sometimes I think my name is Igor Stra-whiskey.

Art is the opposite of chaos. Art is organized chaos.

Why is it that whenever I hear a piece of music I don't like, it's always by Villa Lobos?

Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody's piano playing in my living room has on the book I am reading.

A good composer does not imitate; he steals.

In order to create there must be a dynamic force, and what force is more potent than love?

I take no pride in my artistic talents; they are God-given and I see absolutely no reason to become puffed up over something that one has received.

It's gratifying that people are watching that [Veep] intently and that hard. So it's been really nice and it's been really fun.

A true champion works hard and never loses sight of her dreams.

To my mind, having a care and concern for others is the highest of the human qualities.

People could put up with being bitten by a wolf but what properly riled them was a bite from a sheep.

Let us hope that good authors who are bad Christians will find salvation through the books they write.

I never go with something in mind. I like having an array of generations in my outfits!

Happiness is spiritual, born of truth and love. It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it.

Skepticism cannot be revolutionary, even though it speaks the language of revolution.

Very depressed today. Unable to write a thing. Menacing gods. I feel outcast on a cold star, unable to feel anything but an awful helpless numbness.

When we get the inspiration from Heave to do something. We do it now. We don't procrastinate.