I hated teaching composition. I was playing music I didn't particularly want to play, being on committees I didn't want to be on.

I was a catastrophe at Science and Games, but the good thing about Quaker schools is that they encourage you in those subjects for which you show an aptitude.

I am proud to be able to claim that, from the age of nineteen, I've managed to earna living entirely as a composer.

When I came across something I liked, I wanted to find out as much as I could about it. This was as true of hearing Hoagy Carmichael for the first time as it was later when I first heard Boulez.

I realized very early that I was never going to make by living by writing string quartets. But I wanted to write music and I didn't want to have to do anything else.

Being on a musical quest was something I always enjoyed.

I just scribbled away and eventually a C-major chord was there. I didn't ever decide I was going to be a composer. It was like being tall. It's what I was. It's what I did.

People ask what was the first piece of music I wrote. There was no first piece.

I wanted to write music, and cook, and play cards, and have a nice time.

Trust God with your love life, and buckle up for the ride!

You have to work out where your place is. And who you are. But we're all spirit. That's all we are, we're just walking dressed up in a suit of skin, and we're going to leave that behind.

When we pass by another person without telling them we love them it’s cruel and wrong and we all know this.

And what can we expect if we haven't any dinner, But to lose our teeth and eyelashes and keep on growing thinner?

No one can control his emotion of love for a woman ... the sentiment he feels, I mean, but the strong man controls the demonstration.

Art is skill, that is the first meaning of the word.

The values and the relationships of the people I love around me are my real riches. That's my lasting wealth.

When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You are talking anti-Semitism.

In the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds.

My ideas and creativity are the sources of inspiration for me.