Aaron Copland

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.

It made no sense to ignore them and to continue writing as if they did not exist. I felt that it was worth the effort to see if I couldn’t say what I had to say in the simplest possible terms.

I don’t compose. I assemble materials.

You may be sitting in a room reading this book. Imagine one note struck upon the piano. Immediately that one note is enough to change the atmosphere of the room – proving that the sound element in music is a powerful and mysterious agent, which it would be foolish to deride or belittle.

If a literary man puts together two words about music, one of them will be wrong.

I hope my recordings of my own works won’t inhibit other people’s performances. The brutal fact is that one doesn’t always get the exact tempo one wants, although one improves with experience.

Playing is my way of thinking, talking, communicating.

The idea is more important than the style you’re playing in.

We’re here to have a ball.

I don’t know where Jazz is going. Maybe it’s going to hell. You can’t make anything go anywhere. It just happens.

When I got started in New York, if you were different from Miles and Dizzy it was very difficult.

It’s not exclusive, but inclusive, which is the whole spirit of jazz.

Get out there and improvise and take chances and don’t be a perfectionist.

I’ve never written a political song. Songs can’t save the world. I’ve gone through all that.

Once I could play what I heard inside me, that’s when I was born.

People always ask, “Why jazz?” and I’m like “Why not?” It’s kind of like asking Seurat, “Why so many dots?” I imagine if you asked Bjork, “Why the Tibetan bells?” She’d probably be like “That’s just what I heard.” It’s the same thing. This is just the way I see music.

If there is no dance, there is not music.

When you are so strongly drawn to music, you can’t ‘not’ be a musician.

In a way, I started out to be a baritone player.

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

I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.