Many critics have become de facto teachers. That is a lot of responsibility, and I think it should be wielded with care. Most people appreciate sincere guidance.

Part of what makes music so interesting is the lack of consensus on just about any given topic.

While I believe there is certainly a phenomenon of timelessness in art, the people writing today can comment on today in an exclusive manner.

If people want insights, if they want to swim in the currents of their own time and share the experiences of their time, then it makes sense to engage with the artists of one's own time.

I don't think performance out of duty yields very much. Coercion is never the way to go.

My own goals center around writing the best music that I can, and only I can determine whether or not I've succeeded in accomplishing that.

Just as all pop music is not simplistic, not all contemporary concert music is complex. Often what a person connects with goes much deeper than generalized issues of simplicity and complexity.

The best critics leave the reader curious to pursue something further, but still to let the reader have his or her own honest, unique opinion.

Mazur was a remarkable artist. During our time in Rome we became friends. I would often perform my works for him at the piano.

A healthy dialogue is always good.

I was fortunate to work with Corigliano for a few years in the mid nineties. Meeting and working with him during those formative years was an important experience.

Our thoughts and our happiness are inseparable. Our happiness depends on our thoughts.

If you make the unconditional commitment to reach your most important goals, if the strength of your decision is sufficient, you will find the way and the power to achieve your goals.

The evidence is unequivocal, there's a great deal more luck than skill in people getting very rich.

I love trade. I'm a free trader, 100 percent. But we [the USA] need smart people making the deals, and we don't have smart people making the deals.

A writer's work is to witness things.

When a decision has to be made, make it. There is no totally right time for anything.

I will argue that in the literal sense the programmed computer understands what the car and the adding machine understand, namely, exactly nothing.

The first animation thing I did was the first Transformers, the one that was animated many years ago. And I had heard that Orson Welles was doing a voice on it.

He whose book of the heart has been opened needs no other books.

Science is competitive, aggressive, demanding. It is also imaginative, inspiring, uplifting.