I found a certain kind of music congenial to me; it never occurred to me to write music that was academically acceptable.

It seems to me opera is just as relevant as an expressive art as anything else.

We think the Puritans always dressed in black and white, which they didn't. They loved very bright colors. And there were other differences in perceptions that gave one a very different view of them.

Our most intimate contact with civilizations long since dust has been through the art which has survived them.

The story of Willie Stark fascinated me because it was tackling the story of a man who outwardly has all the success one could possibly want and who is destroyed by his personal demons.

Most of the important composers in our country are clustered in the Northeast.

If something is successful with the audience, it's automatically suspect; the reverse is to say that not to reach audiences is the greatest compliment an artist can receive!

There is something inherent in our democracy that tends to want to level. America is a little uncomfortable in the presence of someone who is distinctly superior in whatever way.

What is American music? The most satisfying answer I've come across is that it was a kind of natural comfort with the vernacular which is diverse and regional; it's not one particular set of sounds.

If an American audience is given a serious musical theater piece that is well produced, dramatically gripping and wonderfully acted, they'll respond to it.

I find it enormously valuable to be sure that that the pacing is what I think it is and that the scenes have the shape I think they have musically and dramatically.

Your perspective changes relative to the frame through which you see things.

Every step of the walk unburdens us of what we have just seen and thought while it simultaneously thrusts us into the previously unknown.

Higher energy always wins and the light always drowns out the darkness.

I turned to the window. A single raindrop fell against it, and seeing my reflection in the glass, I suddenly knew why Finn’s eyes were familiar.They were exactly like mine.

Pride and vanity, the opposites of humility, can destroy our spiritual health as surely as a debilitating disease can destroy our physical health.

Every song is something that I've been through or an emotion I've felt - like falling in love or heartbreak.

I don't understand being idle; I don't have an idle setting. I probably should develop one.

I've lived too long and I've lived too well.

But revealing yourself as ignorant apparently gives one extraordinary credibility on the left.

Customer service shouldn't just be A department, it should be the entire company.