The one true comment on a piece of music is another piece of music.

The more controlled, limited and tormented art is, the freer it is.

I know that the twelve notes in each octave and the variety of rhythm offer me opportunities that all of human genius will never exhaust.

Good composers don't borrow, they steal

The profound meaning of music's essential aim... is to produce a communion, a union of man with his fellow man with the Supreme Being

I remember being handed a score composed by Mozart at the age of eleven. What could I say? I felt like de Kooning, who was asked to comment on a certain abstract painting, and answered in the negative. He was then told it was the work of a celebrated monkey. 'That's different. For a monkey, it's terrific'.

Art postulates communion, and the artist has an imperative need to make others share the joy which he experiences himself.