Aaron Copland

I adore extravagance but I abhor waste.

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.

Music that is born complex is not inherently better or worse than music that is born simple.

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.

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 superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness – I wouldn’t know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self-consciousness.

The hippest thing you can do is not play at all. Just listen.

I see my body as an instrument, rather than an ornament.

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

I don’t intend to be a performing flea anymore. I was the dreamweaver, but although I’ll be around I don’t intend to be running at 20,000 miles an hour trying to prove myself. I don’t want to die at 40.

I do not wear my emotions on my sleeve; I write about them.

Jazz music is a special skill that has brought pleasure to millions throughout the world.

To this day, I don’t like people walking on stage not looking good. You have to look good. If you feel special about yourself then you’re going to play special.

I decided that I would be one of the biggest new names; and I actually had some little fancy business cards printed up to announce it, ‘Count Basie. Beware, the Count is Here.

Difference between sex and love? Well, you’re not always sure you’re in love. But when you’re having sex, there’s really no mistaking it.

[on Ornette Coleman] Man, that cat is nuts!

The minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille.

Keep searching for that sound you hear in your head until it becomes a reality.

The jazziest American contribution to the vocabulary of English is Jazz itself.

To me, singing is like talking. If it ain’t natural, it ain’t right.

To compose music, all you need to do is remember a tune that no one else has thought of.