“I was much more interested in the orchestra than the piano.”

As well as from the beginning, although I didn’t know anything about it.

It’s hard for me to think of others because I’m not particularly in sympathy with the music of this century.

Well, my grandfather was a minister and sort of Protestant, and this was rather depressing to me.

My purpose is to create music not for snobs, but for all people, music which is beautiful and healing.

The greater the emotional intensity, the greater the simplicity.

I was born in Somerville, but I don’t remember very much about it because we moved from there to Arlington when I was five years old, and it was in Arlington that I spent most of my childhood.

I’ve always regarded nature as the clothing of God.

The composer…joins Heaven and Earth with threads of sounds.

She came from an old family, some of whom lived in upper New York State and some of whom had come over from Scotland.

There is nothing like practice.

The planets have the sun, the earth, the moon.

I did all kinds of things in order to earn a living.

My mother’s background was Scottish.

This is not to say that the Scots are not fine people, but they were all sort of.

But I did become fairly proficient as a pianist and my teachers felt I had talent and wanted me to become a good concert pianist and earn my living that way.

I think that of my 21 symphonies, each has its own place.

The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are, the more leisure we have.

As drivers desert the city I find myself clinging more and more to my father’s belief that a man without a car is not really a man.

If we build more windows and fewer walls, we will have more friends.

The more faithfully you listen to the voices within you, the better you will hear what is sounding outside.

I use a lot more chords than most organists and I’m careful to phrase them with the guitar.

It’s good to make your brain work more than your body.

Andy Warhol made fame more famous.

More financial instability will introduce more uncertainty all down the line.