“Whether one calls oneself conservative or revolutionary, whether one composers in a conventional or progressive manner, whether one tries to imitate old styles or is destined to express new ideas - one must be convinced of the infallibility of one's own fantasy and one must believe in one's own inspiration.”
Arnold Schoenberg
“He that can compose himself, is wiser than he that composes books”
Benjamin Franklin
“If you think about it, the word "composing" or to compose, means to put together. So, you have to know what to put together and what to leave out.”
Jan Hammer
“A well-composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter in any other way”
Caroline Gordon
“Half the world is composed of idiots, the other half of people clever enough to take indecent advantage of them”
Walter Kerr
“Rossini would have been a great composer if his teacher had spanked him enough on the backside.”
Ludwig van Beethoven
“I occasionally play works by contemporary composers and for two reasons. First to discourage the composer from writing any more and secondly to remind myself how much I appreciate Beethoven.”
Jascha Heifetz
