"What we value about music and literature are the moments that they create in our minds when we encounter them"

"Music is my religion"

"Music is the shorthand of emotion"

"A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect"

"I don't know which is more discouraging, literature or chickens"

"My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary"

"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"

"Music is the universal language of mankind"

"All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff"

"The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation"

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