All I insist on, and nothing else, is that you should show the whole world that you are not afraid. Be silent, if you choose; but when it is necessary, speak—and speak in such a way that people will remember it.

I grew up loving and respecting short stories. They seemed to me to be the purest and most perfect things people could make: not a word wasted, in the best of them.

To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.

You study, you learn, but you guard the original naiveté. It has to be within you, as desire for drink is within the drunkard or love is within the lover.

To Bach, notes were not just sounds but the very stuff of creation.

The trouble with music appreciation in general is that people are taught to have too much respect for music; they should be taught to love it instead.