Many, many composers have only found their way to a certain form, through familiarizing themselves with texts.

All music has to speak in some form or other.

Within each individual young person you meet, you have the same fields to plough. The trick is just to wake them up, to sharpen their ears for what's already there in the music.

With creative people, truly new horizons open up.

In Romanticism, the main determinant is the mood, the atmosphere. And in that regard, you could also describe Schubert as a Romantic.

The future? Like unwritten books and unborn children, you don't talk about it.

Unfortunately, it happens all too seldom that you really disappear behind a work, that you are no longer audible as an interpreter.

Toward the end of his life, one can sense that he was no longer thinking his way into the minds of others, causing them to speak on his behalf, but that he was now speaking for himself.

The composition of a single melody is born out of a bit of text, perhaps the first line, but it can also be the entire strophe; it can even be the poem's overall form.

But the thing that will always occupy me the most is music.

I came together with younger musicians and tried to pass on my own experiences. In the process, I always tried to maintain my curiosity and spontaneity.

For me, religion is like a rhinoceros: I don't have one, and I'd really prefer not to be trampled by yours.

Lady Moon rose an' gazed o'er my busted'n'beautsome Valleys with silv'ry'n'sorryin' eyes, an' the dingos mourned for the died uns.

When I am myself, I am happy and have a good result.

If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments.

It doesn't matter what you do, so long as you don't frighten the horses.

As long as people want to hear me play and as long as I'm able to play, then I will. I enjoy playing and performing. If I wasn't doing that, what else would I do?

I'm the ultimately responsible person in this organization. Other people can pass the buck to me, but I can't pass the buck to anyone else.

I had had some months of depression. Not serious enough to keep me from work. So, I guess you'd call that a mild depression.

Our opinion of others is not so variable as our opinion of ourselves.

People are always saying,'They'll take care of it. The government'll--Don't worry, they'll--' 'They' who? It starts with us. It's us. Or else it'll never be done...