America tends to worship the modest talent because it doesn't put us in an uncomfortable position vis-a-vis the artist.

It seems to me opera is just as relevant as an expressive art as anything else.

We think the Puritans always dressed in black and white, which they didn't. They loved very bright colors. And there were other differences in perceptions that gave one a very different view of them.

Our most intimate contact with civilizations long since dust has been through the art which has survived them.

I found a certain kind of music congenial to me; it never occurred to me to write music that was academically acceptable.

The story of Willie Stark fascinated me because it was tackling the story of a man who outwardly has all the success one could possibly want and who is destroyed by his personal demons.

Most of the important composers in our country are clustered in the Northeast.

If something is successful with the audience, it's automatically suspect; the reverse is to say that not to reach audiences is the greatest compliment an artist can receive!

There is something inherent in our democracy that tends to want to level. America is a little uncomfortable in the presence of someone who is distinctly superior in whatever way.

What is American music? The most satisfying answer I've come across is that it was a kind of natural comfort with the vernacular which is diverse and regional; it's not one particular set of sounds.

If an American audience is given a serious musical theater piece that is well produced, dramatically gripping and wonderfully acted, they'll respond to it.

The courage to dream, the courage to act.

Love brings you closer to yourself

Well, it takes all kinds to make a mess.

The most important thing I learned is that soldiers watch what their leaders do. You can give them classes and lecture them forever, but it is your personal example they will follow.

In terms of magnifying it and making it plausible, I'm a great believer in truth in comedy.

I say, thirteen is too many dogs for good mental health. Five is pretty much the limit. More than five dogs and you forfeit your right to call yourself entirely sane. Even if the dogs are small.

When someone pursues music through your music, that's the greatest accolade anybody can get.

Death had to take Roosevelt sleeping, for if he had been awake, there would have been a fight.

The sincerity of feeling that is possible between a writer and a reader is one of the finest things I know.

Salah is the first thing we will be asked about on the Day of Judgment, and yet it is the last thing that is on our mind.