I never am sea sick, never. I am sea drunk!

I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge.

I haven't understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it.

One has a nose. The nose scents and it chooses. An artist is simply a kind of pig snouting truffles.

My God, so much I like to drink Scotch that sometimes I think my name is Igor Stra-whiskey.

Art is the opposite of chaos. Art is organized chaos.

Why is it that whenever I hear a piece of music I don't like, it's always by Villa Lobos?

Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody's piano playing in my living room has on the book I am reading.

A good composer does not imitate; he steals.

In order to create there must be a dynamic force, and what force is more potent than love?

I take no pride in my artistic talents; they are God-given and I see absolutely no reason to become puffed up over something that one has received.

Through my choices and actions, I have learned the most effective way of speaking to God is without saying a word.

Your next action could change the world, so make it a good one.

I think I'm like a free spirit.

my definition of the ideal man is 'that particular man with whom a woman happens to be in love at that particular time.

Educate the heart. Let us have good men.

Writing is still on my slate.

When hearing a door creak, the optimist thinks it's opening and the pessimist thinks it's closing.

I can't understand marketing. I think it's because I never looked at what I do as a job. I've rebelled against that and I will continue to.

Every day of the year is a good day to think more deeply about Good Friday, for Good Friday is the drama of the love by which our every day is sustained.

In the history of humanity, there's never been a country like America.