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

The possibilities of percussion sounds, I believe, have never been fully realized

If a composer has a nice wife and some nice children, how can he let the children starve on his dissonances?

Awards are merely the badges of mediocrity.

In 'thinking up' music I usually have some kind of a brass band with wings on it in back of my mind.

But maybe music was not intended to satisfy the curious definiteness of man. Maybe it is better to hope that music may always be transcendental language in the most extravagant sense.

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.