“Inspiration may be a form of super-consciousness, orperhaps of subconsciousnessI wouldn't know. But I amsure it is the antithesis of self-consciousness.”

“To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable.”

“So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it and give it expressive meaning.”

“Listening to the Fifth Symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams is like staring at a cow for 45 minutes.”

“The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, 'Is there a meaning to music?' My answer would be, 'Yes.' And 'Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?' My answer to that would b...”

“Inspiration may be a form of super-consciousness, orperhaps of subconsciousness—I wouldn't know. But I amsure it is the antithesis of self-consciousness.”

“The weight of the world is a trifle, if we all put our two fingers under it and try to lift together.”

“If we stick together as an American people we can bring down the war criminals that are running our country right now.”

“I have probably purchased fifty 'hot tips' in my career, maybe even more. When I put them all together, I know I am a net loser.”

“When man will return to nature, nature will return to him.”

“The sky is an enormous man.”

“When the full-grown poet came,Out spake pleased Nature (the round impassive globe, with all its shows of day and night,) saying, He is mine;But out spake too the Soul of man, proud, jealous and unr...”

“All words are pegs to hang ideas on.”

“A word is not the same with one writer as it is with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket.”

“No doubt I shall go on writing, stumbling across tundras of unmeaning, planting words like bloody flags in my wake....”