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

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

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

It's not evil that's ruining the earth, but mediocrity. The crime is not that Nero played while Rome burned, but that he played badly.

The same piece of music alters at each hearing. But oh, the need to repeat and repeat and repeat unchanged the sexual experience.

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.

Humor is the ability to see three sides to one coin.