He'd be better off shoveling snow.

I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer.

The human voice is the most beautiful instrument of all, but the most difficult to play.

I want to be able to depict in music a glass of beer so accurately that every listener can tell whether it is a Pilsner or a Kulmbacher.

I shall never be converted, and I shall remain true to my old religion of the classics until my life's end.

Ideas, like young wine, should be put in storage and taken up again only after they have been allowed to ferment and to ripen.

Its a funny thing Alice, dying is just the way I composed it in Tod und Verklärung.

On conducting: If you can just barely hear the French horns on stage, the balance is perfect.

If you think that the brass is not blowing loud enough, mute it by a couple of degrees.

Never look at the trombones, you'll just encourage them.

Never look at the brass - it only encourages them.

We came to the world with love and hopeWe are the creation of hope, faith and love.

Behaviours and feelings rarely line up.

If we do not speak for Earth, who will? If we are not committed to our own survival, who will be?

My songs can make you cry, take you by surprise at the same time, can make you dry your eyes with the same rhyme

One of my favorite things about playing Avery Jennings on Dog With a Blog, is that I get to play a real teenager who deals with everyday issues.

The question was, have you heard from anyone on the [Donald] Trump transition team? We have not been contacted.

There's just so little mystery left in music or film. It was all that was magical to me as a child.

Genius has somewhat of the infantine; but of the childish not a touch or taint.

Immigration should be enforced in a proportional and humane manner.

Film is a medium of clear lines and broad strikes - which can be fantastic - but compared to the subtleties and nuances of a novel, it doesn't even get close.