It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful.

Composing is like driving down a foggy road.

The old idea of a composer suddenly having a terrific idea and sitting up all night to write it is nonsense. Nighttime is for sleeping.

Music does not excite until it is performed.

I am an arrogant and impatient listener, but in the case of a few composers, a very few, when I hear a work I do not like, I am convinced that it is my own fault. Verdi is one of those composers.

One day I'll be able to relax a bit, and try and become a good composer.

I liked the opera very much. Everything but the music.

These two are not two, love has made them one. Amo Ergo Sum! And by its mystery each is no less but more.

The model of a composer.

I am an arrogant and impatient listener but in the case of a few composers a very few when I hear a work I do not like I am convinced that it is my own fault. Verdi is one of those composers.

Listening to your wife is intelligence

I take the most wrenchingly painful moments of my life, brush them off and present them for the amusement of others. Luckily for me, my childhood was torture.

For our own success to be real, it must contribute to the success of others.

Do not limp before the lame. [Old Fr., Ne clochez pas devant les boyteus.]

Man's chiefest treasure is a sparing tongue.

The explanation is quite simple. I wished to be near my mother.

Facebook has revealed their estimated net worth - $96 billion. That's almost as much money as businesses lose every year from their employees wasting time looking at Facebook.

Once Playboy came to me, all the preachers ran. I needed to pose in Playboy to make money.

Acknowledging class was always difficult for 'New Democrats' - it was second-wave, it was divisive - but 2008 made retro politics cool again.

Being an actor: that's a pretty big net. That's a big playing field. The Screen Actors' Guild is filled with many, many, many, many people and vastly different careers.