Look for the music on all things, and life will be a symphony of joy. My music is best understood by children and animals.

I cannot now evaluate the events that, at the end of those thirty years, made me discover the necessity of religious belief. I was not reasoned into my disposition. Though I admire the structured thought of theology, it is to religion no more than counterpoint exercises are to music.

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

Is it not by love alone that we succeed in penetrating to the very essence of 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'.

Why is it that whenever I hear a piece of music I don't like, it's always by Villa Lobos?

Harpists spend 90 percent of their lives tuning their harps and 10 percent playing out of tune.