I realized very early that I was never going to make by living by writing string quartets. But I wanted to write music and I didn't want to have to do anything else.

I was a catastrophe at Science and Games, but the good thing about Quaker schools is that they encourage you in those subjects for which you show an aptitude.

I am proud to be able to claim that, from the age of nineteen, I've managed to earna living entirely as a composer.

When I came across something I liked, I wanted to find out as much as I could about it. This was as true of hearing Hoagy Carmichael for the first time as it was later when I first heard Boulez.

I hated teaching composition. I was playing music I didn't particularly want to play, being on committees I didn't want to be on.

Being on a musical quest was something I always enjoyed.

I just scribbled away and eventually a C-major chord was there. I didn't ever decide I was going to be a composer. It was like being tall. It's what I was. It's what I did.

People ask what was the first piece of music I wrote. There was no first piece.

I wanted to write music, and cook, and play cards, and have a nice time.

Your education is your life.

If at first you don’t succeed, then maybe you have the wrong idea of success, or you’re using the wrong standard of measuring it.

Public office is a public trust, the authority and opportunities of which must be used as absolutely as the public moneys for the public benefit, and not for the purposes of any individual or party.

Children have an easier ability to tap into the surreal than adults do, in a funny kind of way.

I've given these guys the blueprint on how to win a premiership, now I just have to be patient until they're ready.

It's a market economy. Apparently the demand for great coaches exceeds the supply, so of course the price of good coaches is going to be high.

If you believe, work hard, and smile there's nothing you can't accomplish.

I remember the actor Dale Robertson said he quit acting when he got tired of having to hold his stomach in. I feel that way sometimes.

Meet the most important living person! That person is you.

The fact is that when you talk about Mujib [Rahiman], everything seems so incredible. I don't understand how the world can take him seriously.