Verbal communication about music is impossible except among musicians.

I said to my friends that if I was going to starve, I might as well starve where the food is good.

Try a thing you haven't done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time to figure out whether you like it or not.

In Paris, you learn wit, in London you learn to crush your social rivals, and in Florence you learn poise.

I seem to write an opera about every 20 years; if you live long enough you can write four operas. I finished my third in 1970.

Let your mind alone, and see what happens.

The way to write American music is simple. All you have to do is be an American and then write any kind of music you wish.

I listened to the pure crystalline notes of one of Mozart's concertos dropping at my feet like leaves from the trees.

I've never known a musician who regretted being one. Music itself is not going to let you down.

A libretto that should never have been accepted on a subject that should never have been chosen bya man who should never have attempted it.

Reviewing music or reviewing anything is a writing job. It's nice if you are experienced in the field you are writing about, but writing is what you are doing.

What lies at the end of the life path? The answer is simple: Nothing lies over there! That’s why mankind must change the end of the road!

You know, funny is this weird word for me. I hear is so many times it has no meaning anymore.

As long as you're worrying about losing what you got, you'll never be able to see that what's out there waiting for you is a hundred times better.

The decisive moment in human evolution is perpetual. That is why the revolutionary spiritual movements that declare all former things worthless are in the right, for nothing has yet happened.

Biblical wisdom means living a disciplined and prudent life in the fear of the Lord

Before you kill somebody, make absolutely sure he isn't well connected. So it goes.

The facts never speak for themselves. They have to be interpreted in terms of some understanding of where they come from and what the relation between them is.

We do not tell old friends beneath our roof-tree that they are an offence to the eyesight.

My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.

It's mainly the high-end luxury market now that drives much of the fishing in the sea. It's not feeding the starving millions. It's feeding a luxury market.