If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.

Let no one imagine that in owning a recording he has the music. The very practice of music is a celebration that we own nothing.

Now that we have everything we need, we discover that there is almost nothing that we have that we want

Composing for the prepared piano is not a criticism of the instrument. I'm only being practical.

I was shocked at college to see one hundred of my classmates in the library all reading copies of the same book. Instead of doing as they did, I went into the stacks and read the first book written by an author whose name began with Z. I received the highest grade in the class. That convinced me that the institution was not being run correctly. I left.

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.

It is not irritating to be where one is. It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else.