Listening to the Fifth Symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams is like staring at a cow for 45 minutes.

To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable.

So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it and give it expressive meaning.

The greatest moments of the human spirit may be deduced from the greatest moments in music.

Most people use music as a couch; they want to be pillowed on it, relaxed and consoled for the stress of daily living. But serious music was never meant to be soporific.

The main thing is to be satisfied with your work yourself. It's useless to have an audience happy if you are not happy.

If you want to know about the Sixties, play the music of The Beatles.

Music that is born complex is not inherently better or worse than music that is born simple.

Composers tend to assume that everyone loves music. Surprisingly enough, everyone doesn’t.

A melody is not merely something you can hum.

Someone once asked me... whether I waited for inspiration. My answer was: "Every day!"

You are the handicap you must face. You are the one who must choose your place.

I really think that technology has the greatest potential to accelerate happiness of most things in the world

To set the record straight for the God knows millionth time, we certainly didnt sign to Atlantic just for the money.

I found it more pleasurable to write something, sing a melody over it. At a very young age, I kind of honed my writing skills, I guess.

I don't like my men to be too ornate. I like them to stand back and let their women shine, and they should really wear the pants in the relationship.

We're in a blessed drainpipe, and we've got to crawl along it till we die.

Each one of my films is personal; each one of my films is emotionally autobiographical. And I like directors who do that.

I think artists who are attracted to working on the Net will adjust their work to the capabilities of a very small screen.

Because we bring so little is no reason to bring nothing.

Please assure me that you are all Republicans.