I would listen to something on the radio and try to tap out the melody, then the harmonies.

Like a circle in a spiral Like a wheel within a wheel Never ending or beginning On an ever-spinning reel As the images unwind Like the circles that you find In the windmills of your mind.

"The more I live, the more I learn The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know"

I insist on a Steinway for my recordings, my concerts and my home. It is the only piano I want to hear my music played on.

So I write melodies - thirty, forty, fifty - then I cast them off until I have just two or three. If only one is needed, I go see the director and ask him to decide.

Here is how I work: when I think that a film needs to have a principal theme, I search for a melody.

To play piano is a significant part of my life, my existence. It fulfills a very physical & spiritual need for me.

I have a very strange melodic gift: melodies come to me effortlessly.

The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.

Life doesn't require ideals. It requires standards of action.

Though the fire and water tried to overtake me, I have come out to a place of great abundance and God has given me hope again.

Twist a tongue, and tongue a twist how many twists can a tongue twister twist around the twisting tongue.

Focus on the mission.

Only play into a variation in which your opponent is strong if you have your own personal novelty ready!

When I do things without any explanation, but just with spontaneity...I can be sure that I am right.

If you want to make friends, go out of your way to do things for other people--things that require time, energy, unselfishness, and thoughtfulness.

I do not think it is permitted that a better man be harmed by a worse.

[Hillary Clinton] is hinted a little bit about what his[Bill Clinton] role might be, but just a little bit.

The trouble is that thinking looks like loafing. Who wants to pay people for daydreaming?