Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration, if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning.

Just as appetite comes from eating, so work brings inspiration, if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning

I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge.

To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also.

The real composer thinks about his work the whole time; he is not always conscious of this, but he is aware of it later when he suddenly knows what he will do.

Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody's piano playing in my living room has on the book I am reading.