"I want to play music when I want, write a song if I want or watch a baseball game if I want"

"Music is my religion"

"Opera in English is, in the main, just about as sensible as baseball in Italian"

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away"

"The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast"

"I've always been into melodies. That's what I love about music – a good melody that gives you goosebumps"

"With foxes we must play the fox"

"Those who play with the devil's toys will be brought by degrees to wield his sword"

"We worked very hard to make the lyrics suit the music. I can't, like Elton John, for example, compose by lyrics. Elton has a great talent for that. Whatever you give him, including your questions, he composes in half an hour and makes a great song out of it"

"Music is the shorthand of emotion"

"A nation creates music - the composer only arranges it"