Why, after all, must everyone like music? That they are missing something is just the lover's opinion.

Don't be too dismissive of children. While it's true that few children are artists, all artists are children.

Arguably, no artist grows up: If he sheds the perceptions of childhood, he ceases being an artist.

Divine fires do not blaze each day but an artist functions in their afterglow, hoping for their recurrence.

Inspiration could be called inhaling the memory of an act never experienced.

It's not evil that's ruining the earth, but mediocrity. The crime is not that Nero played while Rome burned, but that he played badly.

Humor is the ability to see three sides to one coin.

If music could be translated into human speech, it would no longer need to exist.

The beautiful are shyer than the ugly, for they move in a world that does not ask for beauty.

The art of translation lies less in knowing the other language than in knowing your own.

Nothing is a waste that makes a memory.

Do not let your hearts be overwhelmed by adversity. May you have the strength, hope and courage to overcome the situation.

It was always a challenge for me to prove that a Russian financial investor can be as successful in the West as back at home in Russia.

I like violence to be upsetting. The only reason to do it subtley is if doing it subtley makes it more effective somehow.

Natural selection has ensured that each species achieves the requisite effect somehow, but it doesn't care, so to speak, how the trick is done.

It seemed rather incongruous that in a society of super sophisticated communication, we often suffer from a shortage of listeners.

God, or what have you, will not be found at the far end of a syllogism, no matter how brilliantly phrased or conceived.

An artist can accomplish anything provided he doesn't accept facts or defeat for more than a few minutes.

It would be nice to have someone to go back to, a girl to call at the end of the night after a long day.

A woman is more humble, more grateful, more loving.

You can't explain the unknown in terms of the incomprehensible.