The key to the mystery of a great artist is that for reasons unknown, he will give away his energies and his life just to make sure that one note follows another... and leaves us with the feeling that something is right in the world.

What [Louis Armstrong] does is real, and true, and honest, and simple, and even noble. Every time this man puts his trumpet to his lips, even if only to practice three notes, he does it with his whole soul.

I'm not interested in having an orchestra sound like itself. I want it to sound like the composer.

I can't live one day without hearing music, playing it , studying it , or thinking about it .

Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable.

It is hard to think of another composer who so perfectly marries form and passion.

I believe in people. I feel, love, need and respect people above all else, including natural scenery, organized piety and nationalistic superstructures. One human figure on the slope of a mountain can make the mountain disappear for me, one person fighting for truth can disqualify for me the entire system which had dispensed it.