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"I found a certain kind of music congenial to me; it never occurred to me to write music that was academically acceptable."
Music
"Our most intimate contact with civilizations long since dust has been through the art which has survived them."
Art
"It's amazing how fast generations lose sight of other generations. One of the first things the young composers who come to work with me say is that they want to write music people will like, instead of gaining their credentials by being rejected by the audience."
Music
"The artist is something of an outsider in America. I have always felt that America does not value its artists, certainly not in the sense that the Europeans do."
America
"America tends to worship the modest talent because it doesn't put us in an uncomfortable position vis-a-vis the artist."
Talent
"We think the Puritans always dressed in black and white, which they didn't. They loved very bright colors. And there were other differences in perceptions that gave one a very different view of them."
Colors
"People in very high places suddenly fall, and we are always surprised because we don't factor in the basic element that they're humans and, therefore, they are flawed and have weaknesses."
People
"Most of the important composers in our country are clustered in the Northeast."
Composer
"The performances of my works in the last 10 years are probably equal to all the previous years put together. There are so many venues now and there is a completely new public for opera that's grown up outside of the traditional core opera public."
Now
"I've never set out consciously to write American music. I don't know what that would be unless the obvious Appalachian folk references."
Music
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"I began like all composers, writing for small groups. Chamber groups."
Author Name
Personal Development
"I loved Hendrix. I mean, really, really loved him. As if he were one of the great classical composers. And he was. That's how I saw him."
Author Name
Personal Development
"I have tremendous respect for film composers."
Author Name
Personal Development
"Pianists call me a composer, composers call me a pianist. The classicists think me a futurist, and the futurists call me a reactionary."
Author Name
Personal Development
"Many, many composers have only found their way to a certain form, through familiarizing themselves with texts."
Author Name
Personal Development
"Many composers today don't know what the human throat is."
Author Name
Personal Development
"Composers shouldn't think too much - it interferes with their plagiarism."
Author Name
Personal Development
"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."
Author Name
Personal Development
"When I began, the guitar was en-closed in a vicious circle. There were no composers writing for the guitar, be-cause there were no virtuoso guitarists."
Author Name
Personal Development
"Perhaps two million years ago the creatures of a planet in some remote galaxy faced a musical crisis similar to that which we earthly composers face today."
Author Name
Personal Development
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