I frequently hear our present period described as uncertain, confused, chaotic.

If we look at music history closely, it is not difficult to isolate certain elements of great potency which were to nourish the art of music for decades, if not centuries.

Although technical discussions are interesting to composers, I suspect that the truly magical and spiritual powers of music arise from deeper levels of our psyche.

The rhythms of nature - the sounds of wind and water, the sounds of birds and insects - must inevitably find their analogues in music.

Perhaps two million years ago the creatures of a planet in some remote galaxy faced a musical crisis similar to that which we earthly composers face today.

The retrospective glance is a relatively easy gesture for us to make.

The advent of electronically synthesized sound after World War II has unquestionably had enormous influence on music in general.

Perhaps of all the most basic elements of music, rhythm most directly affects our central nervous system.

I believe that music surpasses even language in its power to mirror the innermost recesses of the human soul

Music might be defined as a system of proportions in the service of a spiritual impulse

I am certain that most composers today would consider today's music to be rich, not to say confusing, in its enormous diversity of styles, technical procedures, and systems of esthetics.

I am not my mother. I love her, but I am not her.

If you're committed, that just means you're in agreement your undertaking could be your ticket to the asylum.

In the usual progress of things, the necessities of a nation in every stage of its existence will be found at least equal to its resources.

If only opening a Vitamin Water could be classified as working out.

People always say life is short. I've never been convinced of that - mine seems to have a tendency to go on and on.

No nation as young as America can be expected to become immediately a power in the arts.

Leave three Englishmen in a room and they will invent a rule that prevents a fourth joining them.

We need to realize that poverty doesn't only consist of being hungry for bread, but rather it is a tremendous hunger for human dignity. We need to love and to be someone for someone else

Be always restless, unsatisfied, unconforming. Whenever a habit becomes convenient, smash it! The greatest sin of all is satisfaction.

Because of lies, we can produce and invent a possible world.