No nation as young as America can be expected to become immediately a power in the arts.

I can almost always write music; at any hour of the twenty-four, if I put pencil to paper, music comes.

Composers are the only people who can hear good music above bad sounds.

The vocal cord will be eliminated by a process of evolution, as was the tail of man when he came from the ape.

Jazz will endure just as long people hear it through their feet instead of their brains.

I had found English audiences highly satisfactory. They are the best listeners in the world. Perhaps the music-lovers of some of our larger cities equal the English, but I do not believe they can be surpassed in that respect.

I firmly believe that we have more latent musical talent in America than there is in any other country. But to dig it out there must be good music throughout the land, a lot of it. Everyone must hear it, and such a process takes time.