Composer Quotes

There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing.

Ideas are one thing and what happens is another.

If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.

Picture you upon my knee, just tea two and two for tea.

I cannot conceive of music that expresses absolutely nothing.

In art there are only fast or slow developments. Essentially it is a matter of evolution, not revolution.

Competitions are for horses, not artists.

There certainly is a lot of political pressure for states to adopt the new federal tax codes. But there is no law that requires them to do so.

I was meant to be a composer and will be I'm sure. Don't ask me to try to forget this unpleasant thing and go play football - please.

When I look back now, it must have been like Paris was at the time of Le Sacre du Printemps.

What that book does for me is give me the tools in the same way that I had the tools when I learned the regular scales or the alphabet. If you give me the tools, the syntax, and the grammar, it still doesn't tell me how to write Ulysses.

The Palestinian Authority refuses on an ongoing basis to take the necessary steps to prevent terrorists from getting into Israel.

That is, the only reason salvation is necessary is to get us back to the garden. The Pentateuch not only presents where we began but also why we are not there any more, and why and how we need to get back.

It is rare that even a jazz musician finds an individual voice.

In retrospect I realize that the threat was about ego rather than the validity of the music.

I think we always move from imitation to assimilation to innovation, but I can't name you 20 people outside those we've already recognized who ever got to point three: innovation.

I think we all realized that we had really been replicating things that had already been happening. I don't know if we were smart enough to realize that we were in a cul-de-sac, but we were curious.

No one bill will cure the problem of spam. It will take a combined effort of legislation, litigation, enforcement, customer education, and technology solutions.

I believe without exception that theory follows practice. Whenever there is a conflict between theory and practice, theory is wrong. As far as I'm concerned, we make theories for what people have done.

The music is the last thing I'm thinking about right now, in order of what's important.

It's not getting any better, is it? I don't want my 19-year-old boy going into the army. I love these little kids. They understand how passionate I am.

If Bush said just once: 'Boy. I hope you accept my apology as a country,' or showed some humanity.

I'd met Dr Dre, he was thinking about his next album, we talked a little and he said, 'Let me give you some of these loops and see what you come up with'.

I was blown away by the standing ovation. I've had tributes before, sure, but I don't retain that feeling, and I wasn't prepared for it on Tuesday. But maybe you shouldn't retain these things or you'd be on a permanent high.

I recorded the song live in front of an orchestra, and yes, I was very moved, I was in tears.

I felt alienated at school, and I never did well with girls.

Because I was small, I was getting the hell kicked out of me playing football.

A small town is a place where there's no place to go where you shouldn't.

Never be ashamed to write a melody that people remember.