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.

I don't go to concerts much. I've heard everything. When I do go to movies, I walk out half the time. As for literature, I've read everything.

Why, after all, must everyone like music? That they are missing something is just the lover's opinion.

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

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.

Compose first, worry later.