You may help a lame dog over a stile but he is still a lame dog on the other side.

The greatest composer does not sit down to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working.

The higher the voice the smaller the intellect.

A good composer is slowly discovered and a bad composer is slowly found out.

The finest singing, given a good voice to begin with, comes from the constant play of a fine mind upon the inner meaning of the music.

The great-at-anything do not set to work because they are inspired, but rather become inspired because they are working. They don't waste time waiting for inspiration.

Jazz is not a 'form' but a collection of tags and tricks.

I had no idea Stravinsky disliked Debussy so much as this.

Beethoven, Wagner, Bach, and Mozart settled down day after day to the job in hand. They didn't waste time waiting for inspiration.

For my part, if I had the power I would insist on all oratorios being sung in the costume of the period - with a possible exception in the case of the Creation.

The good composer is slowly discovered the bad composer is slowly found out.

Original, in French: La bonne cuisine est la base du véritable bonheur. English: Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness.

I lied. I do that, you know, when it suits me. I would have thought you'd realized that by now.

It had never occurred to me before but everything in New York is built upon another thing, nothing is entirely by itself, each thing as strange as the last, and connected.

I was much distressed by next door people who had twin babies & played the violin: but one of the twins died, & the other has eaten the fiddle — so all is peace.

Is it wrong to leave relative security in favor of unknown risk at the side of someone you love?

Be ruthless about protecting writing days, i.e., do not cave in to endless requests to have "essential" and "long overdue" meetings on those days.

A nation that enslaves another forges its own chains.

Spare the child and spoil the rod, I am not sellin' myself to god.

You got your own style, now let it come through. And remember no matter what, you got to be you.