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

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

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

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.

Intelligence is silence, truth is being invisible. But what a racket I make in declaring this.

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

The Great don't innovate, they fertilize seeds planted by lackeys, they leave to others the inhaling of the flowers whose roots they've manured. A deceptive memory may be the key to their originality.