I never dreamed that my future would be my husband's past. But it's such a huge past in terms of the recorded content.

Frank [Zappa] was not a big fan of having lyrics, but sometimes he had things to say that lent themselves to lyrics.

Frank [Zappa]'s music was never for the mass audience. His music contains specific kinds of information that you won't find elsewhere in rock and roll.

Musicians more than most people are in the moment. That's the dual nature of that job.

The problem with composers is that they are the most unrequired job in America.

I think ingenuity is part of our DNA. That plus curiosity, plus the willingness to commit.

It's the ultimate identity theft when you start messing with somebody's work. Thinking that you could edit the work, or mix it differently, or re-EQ it, or make claims about it that aren't true.

Certainly Apple has improved enormously. At the beginning, the sampling rate was an issue for me, but a bigger argument was over digital rights, which I had.

Frank [Zappa] said he probably would have been a major criminal, given his brain power and his attention to detail, had he not been a composer. But being a composer is not something you can't help.

When you have a single composer writing his work, it shouldn't be doled out in singles based on the length of a piece.

If you think about how long it takes to write a piece of music for an orchestra, it's outrageous to me, outrageous.

Not having money to spend doesn’t mean we can’t have well-spent moments every day. (42)

The first step to success is knowing that you failed to do something because many people don't even realise. Second step is to take a first step towards making your dreams true.

I felt the kind of peace you feel when you come in from a hot afternoon and pour cold water over your feet.

Watching baseball under the lights is like observing dogs indoors, at a pedigree show. In both instances, the environment is too controlled to suit the species.

The one thing I need to leave behind is good memories.

There can never be peace between nations until there is first known that true peace which is within the souls of men.

Once upon a time there was an old country, wrapped up in habit and caution. We have to transform our old France into a new country and marry it to its time.

Our father taught us such a work ethic that if there's something worth doing, it's worth doing well.

I've always read suspense, so raising the stakes to life and death situations in my romance plots seemed natural.

I thought, it's a shame that we have to live, but it's a tragedy that we get to live only one life, because if I'd had two lives, I would have spent one of them with her.