"I've been down there 6 times and there's nothing like Brazilian percussion."

"Any good music must be an innovation."

"I don't try to make 15 musicians sound like two each."

"I love doing concert music."

"Under my contract with Capitol, I have complete freedom to do just about anything I want in my own way."

"I aim my arrangements at what will fit and colorfully frame the song in the best way possible."

"I was working all the time I was in college. I was working so much that I could hardly do my college work."

"In a sense, a hit belongs to the person who made it popular, but if a tune is good enough to attain tremendous success, then it certainly deserves more than one version, one treatment, one approach."

"When I want 30 musicians in the orchestra, I get 30."

"That was when the Spanish came in and conquered the Aztecs. I thought that was a clever thing."

"You know, they wanted to do a Broadway album and every show was kind of a bomb. There was no music at all."

"Well, that's the secret of commerciality, a simple style and you stick with it."

"I've never believed in cheapening music by going according to what some people think is public taste."

"Regardless of who originally made it popular, any hit song becomes a challenge to the ingenuity and imagination of other musicians and performers."

"I don't think the record company is aware of it. Because they just bury my albums and don't release them."

"I write emotional music."