“People compose for many reasons: to become immortal; because the pianoforte happens to be open; because they want to become a millionaire; because of the praise of friends; because they have looked into a pair of beautiful eyes; for no reason whatsoever.”
Robert A. Schumann
“Half the world is composed of idiots, the other half of people clever enough to take indecent advantage of them”
Walter Kerr
“He that can compose himself, is wiser than he that composes books”
Benjamin Franklin
“More significant than the fact that poets write abstrusely, painters paint abstractly, and composers compose unintelligible music is that people should admire what they cannot understand; indeed, admire that which has no meaning or principle.”
Eric Hoffer
“Ours is a big country and we are a people possessing a multitude of different origins. If composers will increasingly strive to perfect themselves in the art of music and will follow only paths of expression that would seem to take them the true way, the matter of a national school will take care of itself.”
Walter Piston
“Some people just get to see pictures of composers or just see their names written on their music. You guys get to see the man who they took this picture of.”
Joe D'Alicandro
“To rationalize their lies, people -- and the governments, churches, or terrorist cells they compose -- are apt to regard their private interests and desires as just.”
Wendy Kaminer
