In the nineteenth century the more grandiose word inspiration began to replace the word idea in the arts.

It is obvious that anything a scientist discovers or invents is based on previous discoveries and inventions. The same applies to the arts.

Why do we pigeonhole and label an artist? It is a sure way of missing the important, the contradictory, the things that make him or her unique.

Most people think an artist tries to be original, but originality is the last thing that develops in the artist.

It is the element I miss in electronic music - no performance, no loving immersion. Maybe that is why I was never particularly drawn to electronic music.

Great music does not just make me feel good. It means something. It makes us understand. It makes us happy.

Since age seven, I've been composing and have never stopped composing, yet, the creative process is as elusive to me as it has ever been.

I strongly suggest that we play down basics like who influenced whom, and instead study the way the influence is transformed, in other words: how the artist made it his own.

There is another interesting paradox here: by immersing ourselves in what we love, we find ourselves. We do not lose ourselves. One does not lose one's identity by falling in love.

Any creator owes a debt to past creation.

The fact that Stravinsky used the classics as a major influence is obvious. What is interesting is how he used them, how he turned Bach into Stravinsky.

We don’t come out of the womb thinking negatively about ourselves or others. We aren’t born talking ourselves out of our true needs and wants.

It's now possible to play and take lessons from any place of the world. The concept of physical distance doesn't exist in the online world, and that is so cool!

The backwardness of our religious and social developments is undoubtedly holding back the development of the intellectual and political levels.

All of the top achievers I know are life-long learners. Looking for new skills, insights, and ideas. If they're not learning, they're not growing and not moving toward excellence.

I'm in nobody's circle, I've always been an outsider.

I can't wait until tomorrow 'cause I get better looking every day.

Seeing is not as simple as looking.

Because no one can be trusted.

It is a good thing to write for the amusement of the public, but it is a far higher and nobler thing to write for their instruction, their profit, their actual and tangible benefit.

I traveled the globe as always, handing souls to the conveyor belt of eternity.