To create, we need both technique and freedom of technique

The most potent muse of all is our own inner child.

Brahms once remarked that the mark of an artist is how much he throws away. Nature, the great creator, is always throwing things away. A frog lays several million eggs at a sitting. Only a few dozen of these become tadpoles, and only a few of those become frogs. We can let imagination and practice be as profligate as nature.

There is not ultimate breakthrough; what we find in the development of a creative life is an open-ended series of provisional breakthroughs. In this journey there is no endpoint, because it is the journey into the soul.

The conception, composition, practice, and performance of a piece of music can blossom in a single moment.

Play, intrinsically rewarding, doesn't cost anything; as soon as you put a price on it, it becomes, to some extent, not play.

Play is the taproot from which original art springs. It is the raw stuff that the artist channels with all his learning and technique.