The public doesn't want new music; the main thing it demands of a composer is that he be dead.

The modern composer is a madman who persists in manufacturing an article which nobody wants.

Composing is not a profession. It is a maniaa harmless madness.

The first requirement for a composer is to be dead.

I have always loved locomotives passionately. For me they are living creatures and I love them as others love women or horses.

Music is geometry in time.

The public doesn't want new music the main thing that it demands of a composer is that he be dead.

Inspiration is an inner string which must be tuned often in order to play it.

I have that hypocrisy of a parent in that I'm like, 'Come on, you've got to toughen up at the same time let me take care of that for you.

I conceive that the right way to write a story for boys is to write so that it will not only interest boys but strongly interest any man who has ever been a boy. That immensely enlarges the audience.

This paper of yours is so lightly written that you must have sweated terribly.

I have a great sensitivity to kids. I have a great sensitivity to the people that fall between the cracks.

You go to Main Street, and Wal-Mart is coming to town and kicking out all the mom and pop stores. All the people that were in the mom and pop stores are now working for Wal-Mart.

What are friends? Friends are people you think are your friends but they really your enemies, with secret identities.

The judges of normality are present everywhere. We are in the society of the teacher-judge, the doctor-judge, the educator-judge, the social worker-judge.

I feel like 'embattled' or 'disgraced' will always follow my name. It's like that black football player who recently came out.

I want to be able to sleep in an open field, to travel west, to walk freely at night.