You can't possibly predict what will last or not. But once you attempt to write for the ages, you're doomed.

It seems to me opera is just as relevant as an expressive art as anything else.

We think the Puritans always dressed in black and white, which they didn't. They loved very bright colors. And there were other differences in perceptions that gave one a very different view of them.

Our most intimate contact with civilizations long since dust has been through the art which has survived them.

I found a certain kind of music congenial to me; it never occurred to me to write music that was academically acceptable.

The story of Willie Stark fascinated me because it was tackling the story of a man who outwardly has all the success one could possibly want and who is destroyed by his personal demons.

Most of the important composers in our country are clustered in the Northeast.

If something is successful with the audience, it's automatically suspect; the reverse is to say that not to reach audiences is the greatest compliment an artist can receive!

There is something inherent in our democracy that tends to want to level. America is a little uncomfortable in the presence of someone who is distinctly superior in whatever way.

What is American music? The most satisfying answer I've come across is that it was a kind of natural comfort with the vernacular which is diverse and regional; it's not one particular set of sounds.

If an American audience is given a serious musical theater piece that is well produced, dramatically gripping and wonderfully acted, they'll respond to it.

So holding many factors constant, we find that living in a civilization reduces one’s chances of being a victim of violence fivefold.

Kindness is my prayer. Humanity is my abode.

Our film examines the heroism, courage and prowess of the Soviet submarine force in ways never seen before.

Jazz washes away the dust of every day life.

The gods being always close to men perceive those who afflict others with unjust devices and do not fear the wrath of heaven.

For most of the guys, killings got to be accepted. Murder was the only way that everybody stayed in line. You got out of line, you got whacked. Everybody knew the rules.

We're living at a time when attention is the new currency. Those who insert themselves into as many channels as possible look set to capture the most value.

The size and quality of your achievement will depend largely upon what sort of image you have of yourself at your best.

Normal men have killed perhaps 100,000,000 of their fellow normal men in the last fifty years.

There is no limit to which a man will not go to avoid thinking.