I obtained a job at the Library of Congress. I loved books, so I felt at home. I was going to end up, I thought, majoring in English and teach at the college level.

My Dad died during the flu epidemic in 1918 when I was 4 years old. He left a lot of classical recordings behind that I began listening to at an early age, so he must have been a music lover.

With sincere modesty, if there is such a thing, I have never thought of legacy at all. I am always grateful if people like what I have done. A legacy is something no one can forsee.

I'm afraid I talk a lot, too much, perhaps. I should have been a lawyer or a college professor or a windy politician, though I'm glad I am not any of these.

When people ask me what I do, strangers on a plane, perhaps, I tell them that I think. Thinking is excellent exercise, as much as swimming or jogging.

I have a great interest in a number of things, perhaps too many. I admire people who seem to concentrate on only one fixed discipline to the exclusion of almost everything else.

Participation, I think, or one of the best methods of educating.

They say poets write mostly for themselves; if anyone else likes it, well and good, if not, it doesn't matter; certainly, not to me.

I wrote the Brotherhood song for no money out of my deep feelings about humanity, and because I was flattered that whatever talents I had, had been recognized.

Most performers don't admit this, because it sounds negative and performers are not supposed to be negative, but when I was on the road, I was lonely.

When I listen to music today, it is about 99 percent classical. I rarely even listen to folk music, the music of my own specialty, because folk music is to me more limited than classical music.

Penelope? Thank you. For not leaving me alone to deal with this . . . when things got hard. other people would have. You're a true friend.

life is not so long that one can grow tired of it

Laughter dulls the sharpest pain and flattens out the greatest stress. To share it is to give a gift of health.

A man of genius is unbearable, unless he possesses at least two things besides: gratitude and purity.

In a professional once engaged, the performance of the job comes first.

I also have always liked the monster within idea. I like the zombies being us. Zombies are the blue-collar monsters.

He that studies his content, wants it.

Southcliffe is an anthem to ordinary peoples ability to reinvent themselves in the face of ultimate darkness.

I played my best everyday. You never know when someone may be seeing you play for the first time.

Trade is a social act.