Aaron Copland

You compose because you want to somehow summarize in some permanent form your most basic feelings about being alive, to set down some sort of permanent statement about the way it feels to live now, today.

Is there a meaning to music? Yes. Can you state in so many words what the meaning is? No.

Mozart in his music was probably the most reasonable of the world’s great composers. It is the happy balance between flight and control, between sensibility and self-discipline, simplicity and sophistication of style that is his particular province… Mozart tapped once again the source from which all music flows, expressing himself with a spontaneity and refinement and breath-taking rightness that has never since been duplicated.

Inspiration may be a form of super-consciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness—I wouldn’t know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self-consciousness.

If one were asked to name one musician who came closest to composing without human flaw, I suppose general consensus would choose Johann Sebastian Bach.

There is something about music that keeps its distance even at the moment that it engulfs us. It is at the same time outside and away from us and inside and part of us. In one sense it dwarfs us, and in another we master it. We are led on and on, and yet in some strange way we never lose control.

The fans dictate to you when you’re done!

Tomorrow you’ll wish you had practiced harder today.

The expression of freedom that is Jazz improvisation mirrors the ethos of the best parts of society.

A Jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges.

I’ve sung a lot of emotional songs, but when you’re writing it’s very difficult to decide what to reveal.

Stop before you’re done.

I never thought about being famous or rich. I just thought, Oh, I’ll get a nice little girl and go and play every night, and I’d be happy. And that worked for a while. But the little girl’s mother didn’t trust a guy with a horn.

Being a singer is a natural gift. It means I’m using to the highest degree possible the gift that God gave me to use. I’m happy with that.

I wanted something very dense, something that would sustain long and more pieces of wood that would be soft, sweet, for more of a mellow sound.

Music making is the most joyful activity possible, the most perfect expression of any emotion.

Jazz is restless. It won’t stay put and it never will.

I learned my songs from the birds of the Brazilian forest.

Music is your experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.

Anything I do has to be directly related to my music. If it isn’t, I don’t really see a point to it.

Hipness is what it is. But sometimes hipness is what it ain’t.