"Music, of all the arts, stands in a special region, unlit by any star but its own, and utterly without meaning . . . except its own."
"Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable."
"When I am with composers, I say I am a conductor. When I am with conductors, I say I am a composer."
"The key to the mystery of a great artist is that for reasons unknown, he will give away his energies and his life just to make sure that one note follows another . . . and leaves us with the feeling that something is right in the world."
"Any composer's writing is the sum of himself, of all his roots and influences. I have deep roots, each different from one another...I can only hope it adds up to something you could call universal.
"
