In Paris, you learn wit, in London you learn to crush your social rivals, and in Florence you learn poise.

I said to my friends that if I was going to starve, I might as well starve where the food is good.

Try a thing you haven't done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time to figure out whether you like it or not.

I seem to write an opera about every 20 years; if you live long enough you can write four operas. I finished my third in 1970.

Let your mind alone, and see what happens.

The way to write American music is simple. All you have to do is be an American and then write any kind of music you wish.

I listened to the pure crystalline notes of one of Mozart's concertos dropping at my feet like leaves from the trees.

I've never known a musician who regretted being one. Music itself is not going to let you down.

A libretto that should never have been accepted on a subject that should never have been chosen bya man who should never have attempted it.

Reviewing music or reviewing anything is a writing job. It's nice if you are experienced in the field you are writing about, but writing is what you are doing.

Musicians own music because music owns them.

Beauty is the virtue of the body as virtue is the beauty of the soul

the path of politics should be cleared with the sword of the constitution

There is a practice that is most powerful in keeping us united with God. That practice is the constant recollection of His presence.

My mother used to talk about passages and, once in a while, about ordeals. We all have them; we are all shaped by them. She thought the key was to find the healing in the hurt.

Live and die in Aristotle's works.

To hint at a fault does more mischief than speaking out; for whatever is left for the imagination to finish will not fail to be overdone.

I support development and deployment of a limited national missile defense. Few if any of our duties surpass our obligation to provide for the common defense of our nation.

And if there was one title that could be applied to all my films, it would be 'Civil War' - not civil war in the way we know it, but the daily war that goes on between us all.

When it draws near to witching time of night.

Nowadays, an artist is someone who makes art mean the things he does.