Aaron Copland Quotes

I hope my recordings of my own works won’t inhibit other people’s performances. The brutal fact is that one doesn’t always get the exact tempo one wants, although one improves with experience.

This whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, “Is there a meaning to music?” My answer to that would be, “Yes.” And “Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?” My answer to that would be, “No.”

If a literary man puts together two words about music, one of them will be wrong.

The greatest moments of the human spirit may be deduced from the greatest moments in music.

Arthur V. Berger commenting on the music of Aaron Copland: Here is at last an American that we may place unapologetically beside the great recognized creative figures of any other country.

Someone once asked me… whether I waited for inspiration. My answer was: “Every day!”