I’ve learned what ‘classical’ means. It means something that sings and dances through sheer joy of existence.

Music, being identical with heaven, isn't a thing of momentary thrills, or even hourly ones. It's a condition of eternity.

Failure is the most important part of an artist's training, and one you cannot afford to do without.

There is no room in music for the second-rate - it might just as well be the nineteenth-rate.

One of the advantages of being over forty is that one begins to learn the difference between knowing and realising.

Always ask for advice but never take it.

Music-making as a means of getting money is hell

The Heavenly Spheres make music for us, The Holy Twelve dance with us, All things join in the dance! Ye who dance not, know not what we are knowing.

He sees me when I'm lying. He hears me when I flirt.

The problem is that I am in the wrong century to burn things. I am the wrong generation to let it go.

Quality is not an act. It is a habit.

Man is nature's sole mistake.

If you want to work on your art, work on your life.

I made about 28 movies, and I think about five of them were good.

I said in my inaugural address that I am not the Council's secretary, nor am I the Parliament's lackey. That can sometimes lead to conflicts, which are defused through dialogue.

I've been hit on plenty of times, mostly by men with little finesse who thought what was between their legs made up for what they lacked between their ears.

Controlling carbon is a bureaucrat's dream. If you control carbon, you control life.

We have to realize that this country in its private sector has been fighting the most successful war on poverty the world has seen for the last 200 years.