The Third Quartet I made the instruments in pairs - Two different pairs - Violin and viola, and violin and cello. They played very different things from each other all through the whole piece.

Yes, I get a report from BMI about the frequency of performances, and it is very surprising. They played one of my most advanced pieces, and one of my most unusual ones on the radio.

Since I'm allergic to various things, the army wouldn't accept me during the war, and I got into the Office of War Information, which sent music to Europe.

My entire life has really revolved around music that was written about the time that I was born, 1908, to just before the First World War and shortly after it. This music I've always known, and it is that music that's most important to me.

Silences between movements are employed only in order to bring the opposing duo to the fore.

Right at the end of the war I wrote a piano sonata, which was written at a time when Sam Barber used to come down here and we used to have lunch together in a very nice old hotel that's now not there.

That was one of the big problems when I was at Harvard studying music. We had to write choral pieces in the style of Brahms or Mendelssohn, which was distressing because in the end you realized how good Brahms is, and how bad you are.

Almost every one of my various zero numbered birthdays has had a big concert in London and often in Paris.

I've known those pieces ever since I was about 16 or 17; I also at that time was taken to meet Charles Ives whom I got to know fairly well. He was the one who wrote a recommendation for me to get into college.

It was only later on that I became more interested in older music.

When I was in Paris, all of the German refugees began to flow in and it was a very sad time.

Talking about a materialistic thing, I get about 13 times more royalties from Europe than I do from America.

These wealthy people were very interested in contemporary music. They wanted to help diffuse it and get it to be known to other people.

The Quartets have been a major part of my work.

I mean the public likes it more in Europe than they do here because the state supported organizations have felt that playing contemporary music was part of the education of the public.

Then, when the Depression came, all of this changed completely. Since that time, the entire public is of a very different sort and there was not so much support for contemporary music in a direct way.

Well I tried to, but I could never write anything that I liked or was worthwhile. I threw it all out and realized that I had to make a serious study- that my tastes were far more advanced than my abilities.

In any case, Ives encouraged me to go into music even though he himself had such a hard time being a composer.

An auditory scenario for the players to act out with their instruments.

Why write for the orchestra? For one thing it's a very challenging problem.

Aaron Copland was a man that had a very specific point of view about what music should be which was that, he felt that new music should have the composer should show a personality in his music.

Well when I was young, when I was very young, when I was a little boy I don't remember the music I heard, but there was an article in the Brooklyn Daily written by my Aunt about how I could choose phonograph records.

The Third Quartet I made the instruments in pairs - Two different pairs - Violin and viola, and violin and cello. They played very different things from each other all through the whole piece.

Non-violence requires a double faith, faith in God and also faith in man.

Only in growth, reform, and change, paradoxically enough, is true security to be found.

Reality is an illusion created by a lack of alcohol.

Online, you're providing each other with the good aspects of being together as far as communication and support, but you don't have to deal with the realities of paying bills together, or being annoyed when they leave the toilet seat up or don't put the food away in the fridge.

I don't know about this thing - being famous. I haven't figured it out yet. It still mystifies me.

I love tea.

When you can't find the sunshine, be the sunshine.

There's enough time in the day: If you go to bed at 10 and start your day at 6, there's a lot you can do in a day!

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive, to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.

My father went to work by train every day. It was half an hour's journey each way, and he would read a paperback in four journeys. After supper, we all sat down to read - it was long before TV, remember!

Most of us entered journalism and joined 'news organizations' because we care about the greater good. We strive to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

Most people don't want to get married. Being married, that's a responsibility.

Pianos tend to get better as they age, the more you play them. They grow into their sound.

True simplicity is, well, you just keep on going and going until you get to the point where you go, 'Yeah, well, of course.' Where there's no rational alternative.

A mistake I've made is I have not worried sufficiently about the art world, really. I have not concerned myself with the other people in the art world. I've been a little too singular, and that's a mistake I've made. But everybody makes a mistake of some kind, and if that's my only mistake, I'm happy.

Life is full of suffering. Yes. Why should it be otherwise? Embrace. Endure.

We need to stop saying we can't rock this boat when it needs to be rocked.

I've been known to throw watermelons, backstage, at people who are giving me news I don't want to hear. But I never aim for the head.

I would like to see this group in this Congress be starting the process to get ourselves on long term fiscal strong footing.

My turn on 'Letterman' turned out to be a blast. The audience were delightful, and they lapped up my silly Kiwi humour. Even the big man himself came over to shake my hand after my set.

Those who are awake live in a state of constant amazement.

I love being on the beach - it's my favourite place. I can chill out, read, listen to music, play with my daughter.

How did the economy produce all these amazing things that we have around us - computers and cell phones and so on? There were a bunch of ideas, and the good ones grew and prospered. And the bad ones were pretty ruthlessly weeded out.

A zombie film is not fun without a bunch of stupid people running around and observing how they fail to handle the situation.