The ability to conduct is a gift of God with which few have been endowed in full measure.

It is simple nonsense to speak of the fixed tempo of any particular vocal phrase. Each voice has its peculiarities.

The composers could no longer direct all performances in person, and so the responsibility of interpreting their works in the spirit in which they had been conceived was placed upon conductors.

Musical practice is too young an art in America to warrant a search for men with a conductor's gift.

Conducting! A subject, truly, concerning which much might be written, yet scarcely anything of real importance is to be found in books.

Composers are not all good conductors.

The conductor's gift does not always go hand in hand with that of composition; indeed, the union is found much more seldom than is popularly believed.

Of course, experience strengthens one later.

Lost: The common sense of an unconventional dreamer. If found, please return to Love The Stacks.

Blessed is a mother that would give up part of her soul for her children's happiness.

If you love love, then love loves you too

My trouble is I'm the sort of writer who only finds out what he's getting at by the time he's got to the end of it.

I've made a couple of movies in the jungle, and I don't want to go back to the jungle.

I suppose I would still be a communicator, maybe a musician.

I'm not as surprised in going from playing 1,000 seats to 4,000 seats as I was from 100 to 500 seats.

The instant of birth is exquisite. Pain and joy are one at this moment. Ever after, the dim recollection is so sweet that we speak to our children with a gratitude they never understand.

Some people say, "How can you live without knowing?" I do not know what they mean. I always live without knowing. That is easy. How you get to know is what I want to know.

I give the fight up: let there be an end, a privacy, an obscure nook for me. I want to be forgotten even by God.