Arthur V. Berger commenting on the music of Aaron Copland: Here is at last an American that we may place unapologetically beside the great recognized creative figures of any other country.

To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable.

So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it and give it expressive meaning.

The greatest moments of the human spirit may be deduced from the greatest moments in music.

Most people use music as a couch; they want to be pillowed on it, relaxed and consoled for the stress of daily living. But serious music was never meant to be soporific.

Listening to the Fifth Symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams is like staring at a cow for 45 minutes.

The main thing is to be satisfied with your work yourself. It's useless to have an audience happy if you are not happy.

If you want to know about the Sixties, play the music of The Beatles.

Music that is born complex is not inherently better or worse than music that is born simple.

Composers tend to assume that everyone loves music. Surprisingly enough, everyone doesn’t.

A melody is not merely something you can hum.

My son is wonderful. He is amazing.

What is life, but the gentle effacement of a tree shedding its leaves?

I think this is the biggest lesson a president or any of us who has responsibility to govern have to learn: There are always consequences to actions that you take. There are consequences to inaction.

Fortune tellers live in the future. So do people who want to put things off. So do fundamentalists.

The greatest gift you can give someone is your time, your attention, your love, your concern.

Let us unlearn our wisdom of the world. Let us lie low in the Lord's power, and learn that truth alone makes rich and great.

Zen is poetry; poetry is Zen.

Your attitude is perhaps a little unnecessarily rigorous," suggested Jack.

When you are able to make a living with your job as an artist, that means you have an audience and you have to thank this audience.

The silence of a friend commonly amounts to treachery. His not daring to say anything in our behalf implies a tacit censure.