We must have recourse to the rules of music when our genius and our ear seem to deny what we are seeking.

Nature endows us with the feeling that moves us in all our musical experiences; we might call her gift instinct.

I try to conceal art with art.

When reason and instinct are reconciled, there will be no higher appeal.

Music is a science which should have definite rules; these rules should be drawn from an evident principle; and this principle cannot really be known to us without the aid of mathematics.

Emphasis on the common emotive or affective origins of music and words in the first cries of humankind undermines words.

Rhythm and sounds are born with syllables.

In f-major, c* is a sonority contained within the overtones of the tonic f*.

Verse, singing, and speech have a common origin.

Wherever there is somebody else, a war is not far away.

It is a sad state of affairs in the USA that for the sick and the poor that jail offers better benefits than the freedom of no healthcare, bills that cannot be paid and starvation.

Every artist gets asked the question, “Where do you get your ideas?” The honest artist answers, “I steal them.

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.

You always have good shows and bad shows. People want a certain amount of each. It's just widening the market a little bit. The involvement of people at home is just broadening things.

The future may be an enemy. Time can turn happy days and nights into nothing.

Prosperity seems to be scarcely safe, unless it be mixed with a little adversity.

We want to tell our fans to love who you are. You're yourself, so you shouldn't change it.

Napster works because people who love music share and participate.

I was very fortunate to be able to represent an icon to many African Americans.