Beethoven, Wagner, Bach, and Mozart settled down day after day to the job in hand. They didn't waste time waiting for inspiration.

The greatest composer does not sit down to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working.

The higher the voice the smaller the intellect.

A good composer is slowly discovered and a bad composer is slowly found out.

The finest singing, given a good voice to begin with, comes from the constant play of a fine mind upon the inner meaning of the music.

The great-at-anything do not set to work because they are inspired, but rather become inspired because they are working. They don't waste time waiting for inspiration.

Jazz is not a 'form' but a collection of tags and tricks.

I had no idea Stravinsky disliked Debussy so much as this.

You may help a lame dog over a stile but he is still a lame dog on the other side.

For my part, if I had the power I would insist on all oratorios being sung in the costume of the period - with a possible exception in the case of the Creation.

The good composer is slowly discovered the bad composer is slowly found out.

God want to make you like boneless fish.

As Kipling said, that’s another story...

I'm not Elvis. I don't get chased by paparazzi.

The inquiry constantly is what will please, not what will benefit the people. In such a government there can be nothing but temporary expedient, fickleness, and folly.

Blood circulated through her veins with the fluidity of a song that branched off into the most hidden areas of her body and returned to her heart, purified by love.

A perfect peace is not possible; it doesn't exist.

The more we live by our intellect, the less we understand the meaning of life.

I am a very shy person who is just close to himself. So I would refrain from talking about my personal life.

Community is a place where the connections felt in our hearts make themselves known in the bonds between people, and where the tuggings and pullings of those bonds keep opening our hearts.

Venerable to me is the hard hand,--crooked, coarse,--wherein, notwithstanding, lies a cunning virtue, indispensably royal as of the sceptre of the planet.