Comprehensibility is the highest law of all. Unity must be there. There must be means of ensuring it. All the things familiar to us from primitive life must also be used in works of art.

It's always the same: mediocrities are over-valued and great men are rejected.

Indeed, man only exists insofar as he expresses himself. Music does it in musical ideas.

Music is natural law as related to the sense of hearing.

Your ears will always lead you right, but you must know why.

What is music? Music is language. A human being wants to express ideas in this language, but not ideas that can be translated into concepts.

Art is a product of nature in general, in the particular form of human nature.

Except for the violin pieces and a few of my orchestra pieces, all of my works from the Passacaglia on relate to the death of my mother.

God’s intention is that everything that has breath would praise him

A farmer is always going to be rich next year.

Depression is a choice.

You can't teach others if you are living the same way.

I don't remember, at 19, someone giving me a golden key and saying, 'Welcome to Hollywood; which job would you like?'

For knowledge, add something every day. For wisdom....subtract.

[Rewriting is] a whole other art form; it's about craftsmanship.

God is more eager to answer than we are to ask.

And if my present deeds are foolish in thy sight, it may be that a foolish judge arraigns my folly.

Liberalism demands that people without guns be able to tell people with guns what to do.