My teachers are Duke Ellington and nature.

Although I am basically self taught, I consider Debussy my teacher - the most important elements are colour, light and shadow.

Music should be able to invoke the natural emotions in all human beings. Music is not notes fixed on apiece of paper.

I probably belong to a type of composer of songs who keeps thinking about melody... I am old fashioned.

I always want to write erotic music... Not only about the love between men and women, but in a much more universal sense - about the sensuality of the mechanism of the universe... about life.

Music is a form of prayer.

I am a gardener of infinite time.

Composition gives proper meaning to the natural streams of sound that penetrate the world.

Always be yourself and have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and try to duplicate it.

The capacity of Iraq's security forces has improved, and Iraq's leaders have made strides toward political accommodation

Living with integrity means... behaving in ways that are in harmony with your personal values.

I realize that labels are placed upon an individual to simplify him or her, but it is impossible to capture the essence of an individual by a few words.

Every person has seeds of greatness within, even though they may currently be dormant.

I hitchhiked at high school. My parents thought was a perfectly normal thing to do even though God knows I got blown a lot of times riding home from school.

Well, no doubt it's a blessed thing to have an imagination that can always make you satisfied, no matter how you are fixed.

Even the good can become careless without the Lord's being there to chasten.

Republican candidates had to appeal to their base, which is by and large elderly white people arguing with empty chairs.

What good is an idea if it remains an idea? Try. Experiment. Iterate. Fail. Try again. Change the world.