To me, atonality is against nature. There is a center to everything that exists. The planets have the sun, the earth, the moon.

The composer...joins Heaven and Earth with threads of sounds.

I've always regarded nature as the clothing of God.

My purpose is to create music not for snobs, but for all people, music which is beautiful and healing. To attempt what old Chinese painters called 'spirit resonance' in melody and sound.

I found a greater identity with my own emotions in the Armenian culture as I grew older, as well as from the beginning, although I didn't know anything about it.

This is not to say that the Scots are not fine people, but they were all sort of... well, my grandfather was a minister and sort of Protestant, and this was rather depressing to me.

It's hard for me to think of others because I'm not particularly in sympathy with the music of this century.

I was born in Somerville, but I don't remember very much about it because we moved from there to Arlington when I was five years old, and it was in Arlington that I spent most of my childhood.

My mother's background was Scottish. She came from an old family, some of whom lived in upper New York State and some of whom had come over from Scotland.

I did all kinds of things in order to earn a living.

The greater the emotional intensity, the greater the simplicity.

Principles can actually grow and overwhelm the things you are afraid of.

Love is a monster.

Always remember that when a man goes out of the room, he leaves everything in it behind. When a woman goes out she carries everything that happened in the room along with her.

The only thing that can combat fear is action. And there's two actions. There's fight and flight.

I just say whatever I want to whoever I want whenever I want wherever I want however I want.

Of course we're Christian. The very name of the church declares that.

Both cheap value stocks and more glamorous growth stocks can work well in a portfolio - if done right.

If you didn’t make mistakes you wouldn't get far.

These days she simply did the best job she could, accepting the good with the bad.

The societal pursuit of high self-esteem for everyone may literally end up doing considerable harm.