Greatness is not the effect of which inspiration is the cause. We are all inspired, but we are all not great.

In music the present is extended.

An artist doesn't necessarily have deeper feelings than other people, but he can express these feelings. He is like everyone else-only more so! He speaks with a Formal Sigh.

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.

Quarrels in France strengthen a love affair, in America they end it.

composition is notation of distortion of what composers think they've heard before. Masterpieces are marvelous misquotations.