It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness and of pain: read more

It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness and of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature, and everlasting beauty of monotony.

You know, all my songs are relatives, brothers, sisters, cousins.

You know, all my songs are relatives, brothers, sisters, cousins.

A lot of people are singing about how screwed up the world is, and I don't think that everybody wants read more

A lot of people are singing about how screwed up the world is, and I don't think that everybody wants to hear about that all the time.

Composers should write tunes that chauffeurs and errand boys can whistle.

Composers should write tunes that chauffeurs and errand boys can whistle.

The key to the mystery of a great artist is that for reasons unknown, he will give away his energies read more

The key to the mystery of a great artist is that for reasons unknown, he will give away his energies and his life just to make sure that one note follows another . . . and leaves us with the feeling that something is right in the world.

My music fights against the system that teaches to live and die.

My music fights against the system that teaches to live and die.

When people hear good music, it makes them homesick for something they never had, and never will have.

When people hear good music, it makes them homesick for something they never had, and never will have.

Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing.

Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing.

I've outdone anyone you can name -- Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Strauss. Irving Berlin, he wrote 1,001 tunes. I wrote 5,500.

I've outdone anyone you can name -- Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Strauss. Irving Berlin, he wrote 1,001 tunes. I wrote 5,500.