Now, what we are not talking about, what you're really coming to, is what compromises one makes so that the listener understands somewhat of what you're doing, what you're trying to express.

Improvisation is terribly haphazard.

To the person that deals in visualizations, I suppose there is something rather exciting about a whole set of people - they all going symmetrically, up or down, in a military sort of precision.

Today each composer is not only involved in aesthetics, but he's actually trying to create his own language.

Of all the arts, music is really the most abstract.

The difference between the student and the born composer is he really hears the thing, and they have to stage it and manipulate it by technical equipment.

I distrust anything that you don't hear.

It doesn't necessarily mean at all that the composer plays his own works best.

By the visual pattern, but mostly I'm guided entirely by my ear, what I hear.

Hopefully, I have a certain amount of what you call musical talent.

I think there have been some periods when the writing almost became a bit of a burden.

There is no greater enemy to those who would please than expectation.

People will really believe anything. You may have noticed this. It’s not just me. Look around.

The happiest people are fearless dreamers. They use their imaginations to create hope and possibility.

Governor is not the position to have in Oklahoma. It is the head coach of Oklahoma or Oklahoma State or Tulsa.

What do we want to be prefects for?” said George, looking revolted at the very idea. “It’d take all the fun out of life.

I have compassion, I've told you people that over and over again. Enforcing the law overrides my compassion.

A well trained person needs only a knife to survive.

You should not feel that your path is the only right path and that other paths are wrong. You mustn't bear malice toward others.

I feel that the single-minded pursuit of wealth has led the middle classes into a crisis.

We're making tin gods out of those poor buffoons in Hollywood; I dote on movies and appreciate the scanty art therein but I consider the profession about the most debased and debasing I know.