The Indians long ago knew that music was going on permanently and that hearing it was like looking out a window at a landscape which didn't stop when one turned away.

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.

There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot.

Everything you do is music, and everywhere is the best seat.

The act of listening is in fact an act of composing.

The world is no longer a romantic place; some of its people still are however, and therein lies the promise. Don't let the world win.

It is not irritating to be where one is. It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else.

If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.

I have nothing to say, and I am saying it.

Good music can act as a guide to good living.

Look at everything. Don't close your eyes to the world around you. Look and become curious and interested in what there is to see.

Go to bed! Someone is anxious to come into your dream.

All your failures are intrigues of the devil

The world is always satisfied, it turns out, with countenance it can understand. Indolence and cowardice do the rest. Independence is earned by a few words of cheap confidence.

Create something. Create something ugly. Create something beautiful.  I don't care what it is. Create it.

A goal lacking a sense of ethics is a goal that lacks any sense.

Somewhere deep inside, his humanity had been shaken by something so unnatural, so foreign in its essence, his very being withdrew from it...

The interesting thing about humor is that in humor, you - in logic, something is A or not A. In humor, it's both A and not A.

I travel a lot, but I don't come away with new inspiration.

It's almost impossible to be funnier than the people in Washington.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain the services of first-class conductors. They are sick and tired of dealing with singers, as I am.