Never criticize the composition of a Royal Highness. You never know who may have written it.

Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.

One should never forget that by actually perfecting one piece one gains and learns more than by starting or half-finishing a dozen.

The idea comes to me from outside of me - and is like a gift. I then take the idea and make it my own - that is where the skill lies.

Study Bach. There you will find everything.

If there is anyone here whom I have not insulted, I beg his pardon.

Reviewer: 'One of your themes was very similar to one of Beethoven's!' Brahms replied, 'Of course it is. Everyone steals - the important thing is to do it brilliantly.

It is a real pleasure to see music so bright and spontaneous expressed with corresponding ease and grace.

It is not hard to compose, but what is fabulously hard is to leave the superfluous notes under the table.

If we cannot write with the beauty of Mozart, let us at least try to write with his purity.

The only true immortality lies in one's children.

Last night at Bingo, Sylvia won the last prize. 'What am I going to do with a mermaid?" "Learn to swim in the murkiest water, reinvent yourself, " the mermaid said #149

Anti-social behaviour is a trait of intelligence in a world full of conformists.

The difference between an ignorant fool shoveling manure in a bullpen, and a fool with a PhD, is that the fool with the PhD can shovel more of it, faster.

I really admire a woman for her intelligence, her personality. Beauty is not enough.

I feel kind of depressed today... Do you ever have the feeling that life has passed you by? Worse than that... Sometimes I think life and I are going in opposite directions!

All literature is an effort at the formal character of the epigram.

Now is all you ever have. There never is anything else. So, you might as well make the now your friend. Otherwise, you are out of alignment with life itself.

You shouldn't change your behavior because a government agency somewhere is doing the wrong thing. If you sacrifice your values because you're afraid, you don't care about those values very much.

Listening is crucial for any novelist. Stories & ideas abound. We too often talk about ourselves & block out the richness others may offer.

You can not be successful without confronting rejection.