Surely the hold of great music on the listener is precisely this: that the listener is made whole; and at the same time part of an image of infinite grace and grandeur which is creation.

A musical audience is at best uninspiring, at worst definitely drab. ... Respectability hangs like a pall over the orchestra and the boxes; a sort of sterile sobriety ill-fitted to the passionate geometry of music.

Infants are interesting only to their parents.

To be at peace with self, to find company and nourishment in self-this would be the test of the free and productive psyche.

Artists never make wars. They are too busy making life out of the matter of their visions.

If American men are obsessed with money, American women are obsessed with weight. The men talk of gain, the women talk of loss, and I do not know which talk is the more boring.

Timing and arrogance are decisive factors in the successful use of talent.