To write a symphony is, for me, to construct a world.

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.

The great paradox of life is that to fully live, we must let a piece of ourselves die.

My mom would put me in these preppy little suits and slick my hair to the side. I have these baby pictures of me where I'm this little preppy kid with a sweater tied around my neck.

You can't be a real man if you don't look out for your kids. They need you.

We've been to the Moon nine times. Why would we fake it nine times, if we faked it?

The crowning evidence that he lives is not a vacant grave, but a spirit-filled fellowship. Not a rolled-away stone, but a carried-away church.

So many worlds, So much to see and do, So little seen and done by others, means many more things to be seen and done by extraordinary you.

Orwell is almost our litmus test. Some of his satirical writing looks like reality these days.

We can only use British actors because everybody's got to talk exactly the same.

Every writer has to figure out what works best - and often has to select and discard different tools before they find the one that fits.

The Bible: a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalise mankind.