As an experienced artist, I carry my work like a secret pregnancy. I am always aware of inner life and the need to protect it.

Growth is an erratic forward movement: two steps forward, one step back. Remember that and be very gentle with yourself.

What we really want to do is what we are really meant to do. When we do what we are meant to do, money comes to us, doors open for us, we feel useful, and the work we do feels like play to us.

The voice of our original self is often muffled, overwhelmed, even strangled, by the voices of other people’s expectations.

I have learned, as a rule of thumb, never to ask whether you can do something. Say, instead, that you are doing it. Then fasten your seat belt. The most remarkable things follow.

Perfectionism is not a quest for the best. It is a pursuit of the worst in ourselves, the part that tells us that nothing we do will ever be good enough - that we should try again.

It takes constant vigilance not to slip into negativity or simple apathy. It takes courage to believe over any given period of time that we are getting better and not sliding into decline.

As you move toward a dream, the dream moves toward you.

Creativity requires faith. Faith requires that we relinquish control.

If we lean into what we love instead of soldiering toward what we 'should,' our pace quickens, our energy rises, optimism sets in. What we love is nutritious for us.

What we focus on, we empower and enlarge. Good multiplies when focused upon. Negativity multiplies when focused upon. The choice is ours: Which do we want more of?

Love life, Live Love

The artistic image is not intended to represent the thing itself, but, rather, the reality of the force the thing contains.

Something greater than me was happening. And yet, it was happening to me.

I've worked every day since I was 10. I don't know how to do anything else. There is nothing else I'd rather be doing.

The United Nations greatest fear is that average Americans will no longer tolerate these international scandals and demand that America withdraw from the international organization.

Let's try and fail because through failure you learn

The fact that the theatregoing public likes my music is no credit to me. There are many other composers who write better music that the public doesn't like.

Guns kill more teenagers than the other big killers - heart disease, cancer, and AIDS - combined.

How was it possible to wake up every day and be recognizable to another when so often one was barely recognizable to oneself?

Ideally the point of music is community, not the player. Musicians are simply channels to link the audience to the music and to each other.