If there's a deadline, I work late. If not, I like to have normal hours, and get up early and work. When things are going well, I hate to quit. And then I'll work 'till exhausted.

I had the first integrated Army band in World War II.

I think the church should strive to give parishioners good music. Music is as necessary for worship as a building with a beautiful altar, artwork, and stained-glass windows. Together they create an environment conducive to worship and contemplation. We are not in church for entertainment, but to worship.

You have to be taught to hate.

If I told you all the people that have secretly told me I've influenced them, you'd never believe it, and you'll never see it in print, either.

I’m beginning to understand myself. But it would have been great to be able to understand myself when I was 20 rather than when I was 82.

It's like a whole orchestra, the piano for me.