Secretly, I wanted to look like Jimi Hendrix, but I could never quite pull it off.

Secretly, I wanted to look like Jimi Hendrix, but I could never quite pull it off.

Music is the only sensual pleasure without vice.

Music is the only sensual pleasure without vice.

When I speak of the gifted listener, I am thinking of the nonmusician primarily, of the listener who intends to read more

When I speak of the gifted listener, I am thinking of the nonmusician primarily, of the listener who intends to retain his amateur status. It is the thought of just such a listener that excites the composer in me.

Most of the songs I sing have that blues feeling in it. They have that sorry feeling. And I don't read more

Most of the songs I sing have that blues feeling in it. They have that sorry feeling. And I don't know what I'm sorry about. I don't.

Wagner's music is better than it sounds.

Wagner's music is better than it sounds.

Extraordinary how potent cheap music is.

Extraordinary how potent cheap music is.

Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule.

Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule.

The best, most beautiful, and most perfect way that we have of expressing a sweet concord of mind to each read more

The best, most beautiful, and most perfect way that we have of expressing a sweet concord of mind to each other is by music.

Yet half the beast is the great god Pan,
To laugh, as he sits by the river,
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Yet half the beast is the great god Pan,
To laugh, as he sits by the river,
Making a poet out of a man.
The true gods sigh for the cost and the pain--
For the reed that grows never more again
As a reed with the reeds of the river.