The time is past when music was written for a handful of aesthetes. Today vast crowds of people have come face to face with serious music and are waiting with eager impatience. Composers, take heed of this:But this does not mean that you must pander to this audience. Pandering always has an element of insincerity about it and nothing good ever came of that.

It seemed to me that had Haydn lived to our day he would have retained his own style while accepting something of the new at the same time. That was the kind o…

In my view, the composer, just as the poet, the sculptor or the painter, is in duty bound to serve Man, the people. He must beautify human life and defend it. …

I strenuously object to the very word 'grotesque' which has become hackneyed to the point of nausea:I would prefer my music to be described as 'Scherzo-ish' in…

Fashion exists for women with no taste, etiquette for people with no breeding.

I hate music where white people are trying to sound black. The white music I like is white.

Sundance is weird. The movies are weird - you actually have to think about them when you watch them.