Music, because of its specific and far-reaching metaphorical powers, can name the unnamable and communicate the unknowable.

If you're a good composer, you steal good steals.

Music, of all the arts, stands in a special region, unlit by any star but its own, and utterly without meaning ... except its own.

To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time.

It would be nice to hear someone accidentally whistle something of mine, somewhere, just once.

Mozart combines serenity, melancholy, and tragic intensity into one great lyric improvisation. Over it all hovers the greater spirit that is Mozart's - the spirit of compassion, of universal love, even of suffering - a spirit that knows no age, that belongs to all ages.

Children must receive music instruction as naturally as food, with as much pleasure as they derive from a ball game, and this must happen from the beginning of their lives.