There are no fascinating people, only their works are fascinating.

Art's the biggest vanity: the assumption that one's view of peace or fright or beauty is permanently communicable.

To see itself through, music must have idea or magic. ... Music with neither dies young though rich.

If asked to list my ten favorite American fiction writers, Gail Godwin would be among them. In this, her latest . . . she evokes in a short book the long married life of two artists. Evenings at Five is a strong tale of love-after-death.

Music is the sole art which evokes nostalgia for the future.

To start writing about your life is, from one standpoint, to stop living it. You must avoid adventures today so as to make time for registering those of yesterday.

If you read reviews of concerts, the word 'creative' comes up all the time. However, performers playing music usually aren't creative. Critics might say they are, but they're just playing another persons work. They didn't create it.