"A genius is the one most like himself."

"If you don't believe in your music, no one else will."

"If a man gets up in the morning, goes to bed at night, and does what he pleases inbetween, he's a success."

"Composition is a way of living out your philosophy and calling it art."

"The real artist has no pride. Unfortunately he sees that his art has no limits. He feels obscurely how far he is from the goal.

While he is perhaps being admired by others, he mourns the fact that he has not yet reached the point to which his better genius, like a distant sun, ever beckons to him."

"Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best."

"Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force.

There lies its immense value. For what it seeks is to disturb monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine."

"The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery."

"Take it easy, but take it."

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal."

"There's only one way to find out if something works: get off your ass and do it!"

"Don't be ashamed of your own ideas. Most musicians get applauded for sounding like someone else.

People try something out that they think is exciting, and everyone looks a little unsure. Then they play an old James Brown riff and everyone's saying: 'Wow! That's what we want!'

Most of the time musicians are being encouraged to sound recognizable. What I'm doing [as a producer] is encouraging them at the points when they're not."

"Luck is being ready."