“Composition is selective improvisation.”

I never am sea sick, never. I am sea drunk!

To continue in one path is to go backward.

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

Hurry? I have no time to hurry.

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

One has a nose. The nose scents and it chooses. An artist is simply a kind of pig snouting truffles.

All music is nothing more than a succession of impulses that converge towards a definite point of repose.

An artist is like a pig snouting truffles.

Music must be listened to; it is not enough to hear it. A duck hears also.

I wonder if memory is true, and I know that it cannot be, but that one lives by memory nevertheless and not by truth.

Good composers don’t borrow, they steal.

My God, so much I like to drink Scotch that sometimes I think my name is Igor Stra-whiskey.

The more controlled, limited and tormented art is, the freer it is.

It’s one of nature’s way that we often feel closer to distant generations than to the generation immediately preceding us.

A composer is not only an architect but also an inventor, and he should not build houses in which he cannot live.

I take no pride in my artistic talents; they are God-given and I see absolutely no reason to become puffed up over something that one has received.

At 21, there’s lots more room there, plenty of things to improve on as you get older.

We’ve got to see if we can improve, eliminate those mistakes, minimize those mistakes and continue some of the outstanding play that (we’ve) seen and see whether we think that he can be a starting quarterback in the NFL. At this point, we really don’t know.

You will be a hero just for finishing, so don’t put pressure on yourself by announcing a time goal. Look at it this way: The slower you run the distance, the easier it will be to show off by improving your time the next race!

The bench press per se is not a risky exercise. When done right, it can help improve upper body strength and size. It’s only when form takes a back seat to numbers and when it’s grossly overtrained that problems result.

I think we need to let the old racial order just stay where it is and not seek to improve upon it. Not try to create more racial categories, because all that does is it makes a race stick around longer.

Can anyone expect that a step of this kind will improve the quality of our long-term investments?’

It is funny, I don’t feel old enough to give advice… But with the advisers you trust, you better listen to them. It may be bad news but that’s the only way you’re going to improve.

Science is awesome. The arts and sciences need to work together to improve how knowledge is communicated.