Success Quote by John Corigliano

Corigliano is doing two things at once: puncturing a prestige myth and admitting, with a kind of weary clarity, how powerful that myth still is. The first sentence mimics the cultural script around classical music in America, where “greatness” often arrives not through audience devotion but through institutional certification. “You become” is the tell. It’s passive, almost bureaucratic, as if artistry were a status conferred by a committee rather than a lifetime of work. He’s quoting the industry’s voice, not his own.

Then he twists the knife: “completely meaningless.” The absolutism isn’t careless; it’s strategic. Corigliano knows exactly what the Pulitzer does materially (fees, bookings, legitimacy in grantland). Calling it meaningless is less about denying its effects than refusing its authority to define aesthetic value. Subtext: the award has become a brand, not a judgment - a shortcut for presenters, journalists, and institutions that don’t have the time, vocabulary, or courage to argue for music on musical grounds.

Context matters. Corigliano sits in a generation that watched classical music’s public footprint shrink while arts ecosystems professionalized their gatekeeping. The Pulitzer once signaled a relatively rare mainstream nod to concert music; now it competes with the churn of cultural accolades and the politics of “importance.” His complaint isn’t nostalgia for an older canon so much as frustration with a system that mistakes consensus for discernment. The line lands because it’s both a confession and an indictment: he’s aware of how badly artists are trained to want the prize, even as they distrust what it measures.