In a way, yes, because I was starting something fresh, and it was something totally independent.

I also work with the regular orchestras in Munich, Germany and other similar orchestras.

I worked with practically everybody in the business in all of the years in NBC, but I worked personally many years with people like Crosby and Sinatra, so of course that was a great ground school for me.

If you don't operate it as a business, you aren't going to be around very long.

I listen to everything.

I grew up on film scores and scores from films.

We do a lot of light classical programming with that, too... obviously... a lot of Tchaikovsky music, Grieg, things like that which have become less classical with classical concerts.

In a way, yes, because I was starting something fresh, and it was something totally independent.

And then I went into television; and then television moved from the East Coast to Hollywood.

I think my favorite experience is whatever I'm doing now.

Symphonic orchestras have almost become a glut in the market.

I recorded with Sinatra, but the recording business is a very strange strata right now.

We try to say it's creative and in a manner it is creative, but it is a business, because today, with the cost factor in crossing the boundaries that you do.

But I listen to everything, I listen to all artists that come along.

That was probably the stamp that went into my mind, because I worked in television for many years, doing that kind of music, so that really was my strong forte.

While there used to be one or two Pops orchestras, now there are all kinds of European orchestras that suddenly look upon this as a golden wand that can enable them to make money recording this music.

I had had a classical education prior to that.

Well, in our business, it's a very tough profession.

I've watched the demise of the Hollywood orchestra, the house orchestras of the big studios.

Well, I worked with lots of different artists, of course.

Do, What you're going to do in longevity. Not just what happens tomorrow.

I started off as a studio pianist in Hollywood.

Then I went to radio with Sinatra and I watched that disappear.

Although we are being presented in Carnegie Hall, we have to furnish a budget for our guest stars, and for the music writing - which is a huge budget in any orchestra that plays popular music.

I'm not certain that I draw from any one culture more than others. Many myths and legends of many different cultures are really the same story when you get to the heart of it. They are often cultural cautionary tales about how we should behave and how we should live.

Boldness is a mask for fear, however great.

Accept yourself, love yourself, and keep moving forward. If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down.

A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.

I think stardom means a big responsibility that one has to shoulder.

'Kol Nidrei' is probably the most important prayer in the Jewish religion. It comes on the evening of Yom Kippur. There are so many different renditions of it.

To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don't need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.

In a lot of the really impoverished areas of Johannesburg you see these packets of cheesy puffs which are like 6 feet long and the width of a basketball, and they're transparent and they have like 10,000 cheesy puffs in them, and you can buy that for like 50 cents. It's kind of a weird treat that you'd see people having in the townships.

If you aren't in the moment, you are either looking forward to uncertainty, or back to pain and regret.

I have always argued that newspapers should not have any civic purpose beyond telling readers what is happening... A reporter who doesn't quickly tell readers what they most want to know - the score - won't last long. Better he should teach political science.

Sometimes people take it for granted that they had success, especially nowadays when you have instant stardom. A lot of people feel entitlement and nobody is entitled to anything.

Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.

Rise above oneself and grasp the world.

I'm tired of high policy talks. I want to focus on nuts and bolts.

Use description of landscape to help you establish the emotional tone of the scene. Keep notes of how other authors establish mood and foreshadow events by describing the world around the character.

If you're a teenager in Palo Alto launching an app, you know from the outset how you plan to finance your business.

In a world of ordinary mortals, you are a wonder woman.

I was always exploring relationships between art and science.

A guy may wear a suit and have a high-paying job and appear very mature, but essentially, he's a 14-year-old boy.

Curiosity in children is but an appetite for knowledge. The great reason why children abandon themselves wholly to silly pursuits and trifle away their time insipidly is because they find their curiosity balked and their inquiries neglected.

Run with your legs to be fast. Run with your mind to be faster. Run with your heart to be unstoppable.

I worried that people wouldn't like me. Now I try not to worry and focus on being happy.

Sensuality is beautiful, and dominance and submission in the right context is a passionate art. A muse which ignites the flame of femininity, enrapturing both partners in complete euphoria, magnifying both the masculine and the feminine in one tantalizing unit.

The redwoods you can see in Muir Woods are nothing like the redwood titans that stand in the rainforest valleys of the North Coast, closer to Oregon. These are the dreadnoughts of trees, the blue whales of the plant kingdom.