The further the music develops, the more complex the apparatus used by the composer to express his thoughts becomes.

Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.

If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music.

Beauty and fullness of tone can be achieved by having the whole orchestra play with high clarinets and a carefully selected number of piccolos.

You must renounce all superficiality, all convention, all vanity and delusion.

The point is not to take the world's opinion as a guiding star but to go one's way in life and working unerringly, neither depressed by failure nor seduced by applause.

What is best in music is not to be found in the notes.

A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything.

But it's peculiar, as soon as I am in the midst of nature and by myself, everything that is base and trivial vanishes without trace. On such days nothing scares me; and this helps me again and again.

I am hitting my head against the walls, but the walls are giving way.

If you think you're boring your audience, go slower not faster.

Do not let the memories of your past limit the potential of your future. There are no limits to what you can achieve on your journey through life, except in your mind.

If you follow someone who decides to leave your life, you are walking away from yourself.

You must excuse my gruff conduct, ” the watchdog said, after they’d been driving for some time, “but you see it’s traditional for watchdogs to be ferocious.

I spend a lot of time working as a painter and in my studio I go from upstairs where I paint to downstairs where I play and record, so I get this thing crossing over.

Personality is a real aphrodisiac, when somebody is charming or funny. I think certain jobs attract certain types of people.

That's no good, I can't steal from the fairly well off and give to the moderately impoverished! That's not gonna swing, is it?

In fact, I have never met anyone who didn't like Gargoyles.

I have always been more interested in persons than in people.

American Action Network should be spending their money to try and get those Democrats to change the votes, not beating up on Republicans in the House.

Every great example of punishment has in it some injustice, but the suffering individual is compensated by the public good.