The acorn of ambition often grows into an oak from which men hang.
I think anything that is expressed directly and as honestly as possible will last.
It seems to me opera is just as relevant as an expressive art as anything else.
I found a certain kind of music congenial to me; it never occurred to me to write music that was academically acceptable.
Our most intimate contact with civilizations long since dust has been through the art which has survived them.
If an American audience is given a serious musical theater piece that is well produced, dramatically gripping and wonderfully acted, they'll respond to it.
What is American music? The most satisfying answer I've come across is that it was a kind of natural comfort with the vernacular which is diverse and regional; it's not one particular set of sounds.
When you wept it was just over yourself and not because of the marvelous impossibility of reaching her through the difference that separates you.
This is what you do now to give your day topography--scan the boxes, read the news, see the chain of your friends reporting about themselves, take the 140-character expository bursts and sift through for the information you need. It's a highly deceptive world, one that constantly asks you to comment but doesn't really care what you have to say. The illusion of participation can sometimes lead to participation. But more often than not, it only leads to more illusion, dressed in the guise of reality.
When you see those in healthcare who don't get this burn-out, they are very motherly, fatherly, or loving and attentive with the patients. [These] wonderful caretakers, doctors, and nurses don't get as much burn-out as people who are more defensive of the feelings and suffering of others.
If more than 10% of the people like a painting, you can be sure it's bad.