"I would never have become music director of the Chicago Symphony, which would have been an extremely sad loss"

"Music is my religion"

"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"

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

"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"

"Hell has been described as a pocket edition of Chicago"

"Music is the shorthand of emotion"

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

"Music in the soul can be heard by the universe"

"I call architecture frozen music"

"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent"