Music owes as much to Bach as religion to its founder.

If we were all determined to play the first violin we should never have an ensemble. therefore, respect every musician in his proper place.

The principal mark of genius is not perfection, but originality.

To send light into the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist.

Talent works, genius creates.

When you play, never mind who listens to you.

For me, music is always the language which permits one to converse with the Beyond.

Play always as if in the presence of a master.

I am so fresh in soul and spirit that life gushes and bubbles around me in a thousand springs.

When you play, do not trouble yourself as to who is listening. Yet always play as though a master listened to you.

In order to compose, all you need to do is remember a tune that nobody else has thought of.

The sudden pounding in her chest, the trembling of her hands, the inflation of her lungs. It was exactly like being alive. It was reanimating the dead.

I've always been a prog rock fanatic, even before Vengeance. However I think I started to love the genre with Pink Floyd, yeah. I love them from the very beginning, also the Syd Barrett era.

I dont know if hell exists, but there sure as hell are some people who dont belong in heaven.

You alone are responsible for what you do, don’t do, or how you respond to what’s done to you.

When I was studying at Chicago and at Stanford University, where many many cases of two people observing the same event have a different take on what happened.

We are formed by what we desire

It's a disservice, really, when we put celebrated people on a pedestal and don't allow them to be human. It's a very lonely experience for the individual. It's not a sustainable way to live.

When you admonish a wrongdoer, do so gently, that it may not lead to hostility.

The appointment [in Harvard] gave me economic safety, writerly support, and intellectual self-respectplus eight months to myself every year.

I see songs not as a commodity used up when the album goes off the charts, which is often the case with pop songs. I see them as a body of work. Life should be breathed into them.