To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also.

Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody's piano playing in my living room has on the book I am reading.

The real composer thinks about his work the whole time; he is not always conscious of this, but he is aware of it later when he suddenly knows what he will do.

In order to create there must be a dynamic force, and what force is more potent than love?

To continue in one path is to go backward.

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.