As a lifelong pacifist, Quaker, and a gay man, I despair that gays and lesbians are expending energy trying to get into the military when they should be using that same energy getting rid of the military completely.

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

Bel canto is to opera what pole-vaulting is to ballet.

Compose first, worry later.

If a composer could state in words what being a composer means, he would no longer need to be a composer.

The beautiful are shyer than the ugly, for they move in a world that does not ask for beauty.

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.