American teachers have one indisputable advantage over foreign ones; they understand the American temperament and can judge its unevenness, its lights and its shadows.

There is one thing that freezes a musician more than the deadliest physical cold, and that is the spiritual chill of an unresponsive audience!

I think that the quality of all bands is steadily improving and it is a pleasant thought to me that perhaps the efforts of Sousa's Band have quickened that interest and improved that quality.

Any composer who is gloriously conscious that he is a composer must believe that he receives his inspiration from a source higher than himself.

My success is not due to any personal superiority over other people.

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

Anybody can write music of a sort. But touching the public heart is quite another thing.