We cannot describe sound, but we cannot forget it either.

I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge.

I haven't understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it.

One has a nose. The nose scents and it chooses. An artist is simply a kind of pig snouting truffles.

My God, so much I like to drink Scotch that sometimes I think my name is Igor Stra-whiskey.

Art is the opposite of chaos. Art is organized chaos.

Why is it that whenever I hear a piece of music I don't like, it's always by Villa Lobos?

Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody's piano playing in my living room has on the book I am reading.

A good composer does not imitate; he steals.

In order to create there must be a dynamic force, and what force is more potent than love?

I take no pride in my artistic talents; they are God-given and I see absolutely no reason to become puffed up over something that one has received.

The power of prayer is beyond the understanding of man

Devil has to offer many diabolical grimaces: One of these caricatures is prejudice, it stirs up hatred.

When after many battles past Both tir'd with blows make peace at last What is it after all the people get? Why! taxes widows wooden legs and debt.

Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give lustre, and many more people see than weigh.

The occasion is piled high with difficulty. We must rise to the occasion.

He must put his whole life into his work, who would do it well, and make it potential to influence other lives.

By annihilating desires, you annihilate the mind.

Miles away from everthing and everyone I've ever known or loved. I feel as if I've entered a new era of my life. What strange places our lives carry us to.

When people reproach us, they only increase their own failings even as they are disclaiming them.

Develop confidence in your innate qualities and believe that these qualities will be brought to fruition.