A critic can serve as guide. I think there's an understanding amongst the public that critics have their own preferences and dislikes.

Part of what makes music so interesting is the lack of consensus on just about any given topic.

While I believe there is certainly a phenomenon of timelessness in art, the people writing today can comment on today in an exclusive manner.

If people want insights, if they want to swim in the currents of their own time and share the experiences of their time, then it makes sense to engage with the artists of one's own time.

I don't think performance out of duty yields very much. Coercion is never the way to go.

My own goals center around writing the best music that I can, and only I can determine whether or not I've succeeded in accomplishing that.

Just as all pop music is not simplistic, not all contemporary concert music is complex. Often what a person connects with goes much deeper than generalized issues of simplicity and complexity.

Many critics have become de facto teachers. That is a lot of responsibility, and I think it should be wielded with care. Most people appreciate sincere guidance.

The best critics leave the reader curious to pursue something further, but still to let the reader have his or her own honest, unique opinion.

Mazur was a remarkable artist. During our time in Rome we became friends. I would often perform my works for him at the piano.

A healthy dialogue is always good.

A woman dictates before marriage in order that she may have an appetite for submission afterwards.

Nothing on earth compares to the strength God is willing to interject into lives caught in the act of believing.

As a parent, I want my kids to have an optimistic outlook, and one that has hope, and that makes sense, where good does triumph over evil and it's not cynical, and it's not snarky.

I would rather go while I am being urged to stay, than to stay beyond the time when I should go.

Life isn't worth living until you have found something worth dying for.

A man makes inferiors his superiors by heat; self-control is the rule.

Fans, true fans, are hard to find and precious. Just a few can change everything. What they demand, though, is generosity and bravery.

I think that a lot of people are making a lot of money spreading anxiety. Anxiety sells.

Fiction, maybe art in general, is a tentative, uncertain enterprise; it's not science, it's an exploration, but you never find much in the way of answers.

I never knew what to do with a paper except to put it in a side pocket or pass it to a clerk who understood it better than I did.