Whatever I do I've always done not because I want something but to compensate for a loss, to bring about a balance, to create amends, to make things right.

He moved like a dancer, which is not surprising; a horse is a beautiful animal, but it is perhaps most remarkable because it moves as if it always hears music.

Words were all he knew; they possessed and overwhelmed him, as if they were a thousand white cats with whom he shared a one-room apartment.

Well-timed silence is the most commanding expression.

One is attracted to beauty. Beauty is the coordination of things, in such a way, that it is what attracts you. It's almost self-defining.

The shelf was filled with books that were hard to read, that could devastate and remake one's soul, and that, when they were finished, had a kick like a mule.

They gave themselves up to the stars the way swimmers can surrender to the waves, and the stars took them without resistance.

And if you were a spirit, and time did not bind you, and patience and love were all you knew, then there you would wait for someone to return, and the story to unfold.

If it weren't for music, I would think that love is mortal.

Marxists are people whose insides are torn up day after day because they want to rule the world and no one will even publish their letter to the editor.

And how does God speak to you?" "In the language of everything that is beautiful.

You can never hurt anyone without hurting yourself. Never hurt an innocent, loving, and kind animal.

We laughed together. It’s so lovely laughing with a man. It feels positive. Relaxed…

It's wonderful to look back and think you were part of a force that shaped modern music and influenced the public in so many ways. However, that's all in the past.

I doubt if there is a single really excellent art school now available in New York.

Because feeling love does make you feel superior. Until you find out you aren't loved back.

I don't suppose I'll ever retire completely.

If you don't back it up with performance and hard work, talking doesn't mean a thing.

There is no dark side to love. Only a darker side to those we love

I hated teaching composition. I was playing music I didn't particularly want to play, being on committees I didn't want to be on.

History is only a tiresome repetition of one story. Persons and classes have sought to win possession of the power of the State in order to live luxuriously out of the earnings of others