To call somebody a Jewish composer is obviously redundant.

I think if you see that no one is going to laugh at you for it, I think the concept of living nicely will be infectious. I believe there is room for the absence of cynicism.

I was in the army, and I had given up the thought of being a composer.

To possess possessions, a man will "sell himself" to have what another has, but it never dawns on him ~ that the more he gets, the less he keeps of himself.

...I know Shakespeare said art is holding up a mirror to nature- but you're actually bending and refracting it through your interior dialogue ...

In America everyone called the merest acquaintance a ‘friend’ – Guy had taken up the habit. It made him feel better about not having any real friends.

The starting point is a question.

It is, I think, good evidence of life after death

Instead of trying to modify what nature brought us, we embraced it.

The stage is a place where I can be wholly myself. Even though you're in front of people almost to be judged, it is a place without judgement.

How much of our literature, our political life, our friendships and love affairs, depend on being able to talk peacefully in a bar!

God would first, by this inspiration of his Spirit, have wrought in our hearts that holy love without which none can enter into glory.

I've seen Leonardo Da Vinci notebooks which are filled with tiny, messy scrawls written in mirror image across the page. I'd love to know how he kept all his projects going at once.