Why write for the orchestra? For one thing it's a very challenging problem.

Silences between movements are employed only in order to bring the opposing duo to the fore.

When I was in Paris, all of the German refugees began to flow in and it was a very sad time.

Aaron Copland was a man that had a very specific point of view about what music should be which was that, he felt that new music should have the composer should show a personality in his music.

The Third Quartet I made the instruments in pairs - Two different pairs - Violin and viola, and violin and cello. They played very different things from each other all through the whole piece.

Almost every one of my various zero numbered birthdays has had a big concert in London and often in Paris.

Since I'm allergic to various things, the army wouldn't accept me during the war, and I got into the Office of War Information, which sent music to Europe.

Yes, I get a report from BMI about the frequency of performances, and it is very surprising. They played one of my most advanced pieces, and one of my most unusual ones on the radio.

Talking about a materialistic thing, I get about 13 times more royalties from Europe than I do from America.

The first thing that struck me about contemporary music in general had been thatthere was not much interest in rhythm.

My musical life started with hearing and being fascinated by contemporary music.

Whom the society deems worthless, once they discover their special inclination, it will change the very course of their lives as well as the shape of the very society that distastes them.

[T]he West did not invent slavery

In the end we shall have had enough of cynicism, skepticism and humbug, and we shall want to live more musically.

Why don't you show me the little bit of spine you've been saving for his mattress?

You have to open your mind. I like the ability to express myself in a deep way. It's the closest music to our humanity - it's like a folk music that rises up out of a culture.

In England, everyone believes if you think, then you don't feel. But all my novels are about joining together thinking and feeling.

Get a life. A real life. Not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger paycheck, the larger house.

Every generation reinvents the wheel - and in the process it often adds to rather than subtracts from a woman's burdens.

Reaganomics, that makes sense to me. It means if you don't have enough money, it's just because poor people are hoarding it.

There was a knight came riding by In early spring, when the roads were dry; And he heard that lady sing at the noon, Two red roses across the moon.