“I guess some people in classical music can keep going until they kick (die) and the (Rolling) Stones are definitely pushing the envelope but I wonder if here’s a time when you have to face whether you are as good as you used to be.”

I remember reading about how the decline of the steel industry had been affecting the Lehigh Valley, and I decided that’s what I was going to write the song about.

People pay a lot of money to go see shows now, they don’t wanna know about your technical problems, or if you’re not feeling good, they don’t wanna know we have a glitch. It’s their night, you better do something to earn that money.

Where have you been hanging out lately honey? You can’t dress trashy ’til you spend a lot of money.

When I look at great works of art or listen to inspired music, I sense intimate portraits of the specific times in which they were created.

my belonging to relief society has renewed, strengthened, and committed me to be a better wife and mother and daughter of God. my heart has been enlarged with gospel understanding and with love of the Savior and what He’s done for me. so to you, dear sisters.

In every heart there is a room, A sanctuary safe and strong, To heal the wounds from lovers past, Until a new one comes along

Yes, they’re sharing a drink they call loneliness But it’s better than drinkin’ alone.

Discipline is knowing what to do. Knowing when to do it. Doing it to the best of your abilities. Doing it that way every single time.

Shut up before I drop yo ass off at Koreatown. Now hold on, America, don’t start writing no letters. I’m just kidding. But am I lying?

Faith and fear both demand you believe in something you cannot see. You choose.

My voice is like a car that I get into and drive but I don’t know where I’m going. And I record everything.

You enrich humanity with the profound expression of these feelings. … My songs are like my kids.

I always loved music, so I would probably either be in a band with another group of people, or an arranger, a producer, a musicologist, a music history guy, something to do with music. Either that, or I would probably be in jail. Or dead.

There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.

Don’t wait for answers, just take your chances. Don’t ask me why.

Even when I was struggling and had horrible day jobs and wanted to be successful but wasn’t finding my way in.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to decide where jazz starts or where it stops, where Tin Pan Alley begins and jazz ends, or even where the borderline lies between between classical music and jazz. I feel there is no boundary line

I would like my work to be recognized as being in the classical tradition (Coptic, Egyptian, Greek, Chinese), as representing the Ideal in the mind. Classical art cannot possibly be eclectic.

I don’t care if it’s classical, funk, salsa, reggae, calypso; it’s all dance music.

I’m a self-taught guitarist, but I have a classical music background.

I have a huge record and cd collection of all kinds of great classical, jazz and all music but I find the internet very accessible and quick.

Suddenly I’ve got an overwhelming desire to surround myself with the aura of classical and Romantic art.

I’m not handsome in the classical sense. The eyes droop, the mouth is crooked, the teeth aren’t straight, the voice sounds like a Mafioso pallbearer, but somehow it all works.

I got obsessed with classical music, I got obsessed with Chopin, with playing the piano.