I personally do not write highbrow music. If I do, it's by accident.

It's true that I tend to daydream. I'm the same person in business as I am in music: I can be distracted and absentminded. It's my style.

I just have to take my chances like any other composer.

I feel that I belong to the 19th century. Some composers' music is very topical. It almost says, 'This is about what I read in newspapers yesterday.' Not mine.

I see only adaptations - not revolutions.

Ive managed to dodge the curse. Not all my family have. Of course, music helped me - music is all about civilization, about something worthwhile. Its all about ideas.

If you have more money than you need, you have to give it away. It's a duty. I get to choose whom to sponsor, and I like to give to the areas that I know something about.

My music is all about an idealistic human personality. I have 19th-century ideals.

My father was so much more than an accomplished businessman.

I've had every advantage in the world, despite the 18 years of silence which were nobody's fault but mine.

Nicolette, Kendalle, and Alexandra are my children. Their mother, Cynthia Beck, and I, love them very much.

Keep your head up and heart open. And make "Thank You" your mantra of life!

Seven half-bloods shall answer the callTo storm or fire the world must fallAn oath to keep with a final breathand foes bear arms to the doors of death

It is not the lowest priced goods that are always the cheapest - the quality is, or ought to be as much an object with the purchaser, as the price.

I learned the importance of being nonjudgmental, taking what happens and trying to make it work.That's something you should apply to life.

Genius gives birth, talent delivers.

..to change something you do not understand is the true nature of evil.

It's not only the most difficult thing to know one's self, but the most inconvenient.

Beautiful revelations of power are often written by the guy who got kicked around and didn’t have any power.

I am not a nurse escorting six lunatics to the ice cream parlor.

I snapped my fingers all through it. Sometimes I set my own tempo during rehearsal by doing that.