One thing I am certain of is that, if I have done anything good in music, it was, first, because of my father, and second, because of my wife

An apparent confusion, if lived with long enough, may become orderly . . . A rare experience of a moment at daybreak, when something in nature seems to reveal all consciousness, cannot be explained at noon. Yet it is part of the day's unity

Expression, to a great extent, is a matter of terms, and terms are anyone's. The meaning of 'God' may have a billion interpretations if there be that many souls in the world

Beauty in music is too often confused with something that lets the ears lie back in an easy chair. Many sounds that we are used to do not bother us, and for that reason we are inclined to call them beautiful. Frequently, when a new or unfamiliar work is accepted as beautiful on its first hearing, its fundamental quality is one that tends to put the mind to sleep.

Every great inspiration is but an experiment - though every experiment we know, is not a great inspiration.

Awards are merely the badges of mediocrity.

Is not beauty in music too often confused with something which lets the ears lie back in an easy chair?