Symphony musicians are not trained in improvising, certainly not in a jazz style.

After the war, once the bop revolution had taken hold, there were all kinds of young musicians, talented young musicians, who were ready for this fusion of classical and jazz.

If we could ever find that moment, maybe thousands of years from now, where all the musics of the worlds would be communicating with each other, there would be no more wars, there would be peace.

As rich as Cincinnati was in live music, New York was even more.

So this anchoring in some way, in some important way in the past without repeating the past, but on the basis of the past building something new: that is what is important.

If you mess around with jazz, you better have a good drummer and a good bass player.

Many people think of me as a modernist, as a radical in music, you know, someone who's always sort of at the avant-garde of musics, but I'm also quite a traditionalist.

I don't hate work, composing is not work for me, it's my pleasure; it's my life. So why should I stop? If something is pleasurable and exciting and rewarding, why should one stop?

I was playing in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra as principal horn. I was there for some 15 years - one of the most exciting and great musical periods in my life.

My primary calling, I always knew since the age of 11, was as a composer, and so that had to take priority.

As long as I'm healthy and can keep going that's what I'll do.

realize what you are not doing and dare to do what you are not doing. What distinctive thing are you not doing?

Most of the world's problems will be solved if literacy prevailed.

Love is purely holy.

Everyone and Everything is conspiring to end up in a book.

It Is Impossible For Anyone To Live Independently Of The Kingdom Of God And Be Truly Happy

People love dogs. This is, I hope, the least surprising sentence you will read in this book. I myself have had long discussions with my dog friends, and by that I mean my friends who are dogs.

Programming will aid a person in developing their mind and will aid their meditation. I find that people who have pursued programming are doing much better in their meditation.

The entire money structure and materialistic society is a false society.

I'd let my golden chances pass me by.

Flowers are as common in the country as people are in London.