Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.

Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.

Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.

Sins cannot be undone, only forgiven.

My music is best understood by children and animals.

Is it not by love alone that we succeed in penetrating to the very essence of being?

Money may kindle, but it cannot by itself, and for very long, burn.

The trouble with music appreciation in general is that people are taught to have too much respect for music they should be taught to love it instead.

A plague on eminence! I hardly dare cross the street anymore without a convoy, and I am stared at wherever I go like an idiot member of a royal family or an animal in a zoo; and zoo animals have been known to die from stares.

I am in the present. I cannot know what tomorrow will bring forth. I can know only what the truth is for me today. That is what I am called upon to serve, and I serve it in all lucidity.

The real composer thinks about his work the whole time; he is not always conscious of this, but he is aware of it later when he suddenly knows what he will do.

The Church knew what the psalmist knew: Music praises God. Music is well or better able to praise him than the building of the church and all its decoration; it is the Church's greatest ornament.