I still feel the impulse to give young writers a hearing, and I believe I have played more unpublished compositions than any other band leader in the country.

The red and white and starry blue Is freedom's shield and hope.

I am happy now, to recall that I was not only his son but his companion, and whenever there was a hunting expedition or any other pleasure, I was always with him.

Dance as though no one is watching. Love as though you've never been hurt. Sing as though no one can hear you. Live as though heaven is on earth.

Anybody can write music of a sort. But touching the public heart is quite another thing.

A band is only as good as its euphonium section.

I have always believed that 98% of a student's progress is due to his own efforts, and 2% to his teacher.

From childhood I was passionately fond of music and wanted to be a musician. I have no recollection of any real desire ever to be anything else.

Remember always that the composer's pen is still mightier than the bow of the violinist; in you lie all the possibilities of the creation of beauty.

There is one thing that freezes a musician more than the deadliest physical cold, and that is the spiritual chill of an unresponsive audience!

Jazz will endure just as long people hear it through their feet instead of their brains.

If it’s true that our species is alone in the universe, then I’d have to say the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little.

If you are number 2 or 3 and you are ok with that, then you are ready to be number one and everybody is ok with that.

Before language, cavemen simply grunted, and then they used the club. Communication changed that. It's the mechanism that created civilization and prevents its own destruction.

It's pretty self-explanatory. If we play well, we know what our picture is. If we don't play well, we'll know what our picture is.

I'll be active in politics through PACs at a later date.

My feeling is if you're going to be a leader, you have to carefully assess where people are and where people want to go.

In a way, I'm not at all jaded, and still enjoy so much what I do. It's a good trick.

This country has a mental health problem disguised as a gun problem, and a tyranny problem disguised as a security problem.

Maybe my work looks a little crazy, a little insane, but I don't really see myself as a crazy artist or a shaman artist.

Better the rule of One, whom all obey, than to let clamorous demagogues betray our freedom with the kiss of anarchy.