I had no idea of the historical evolution of the civilized…

“Do you know what he told me after lying under a cliff for thirty six hours with two inches of his femur sticking out?…

— Walker Percy

I listen to Bach a great deal. In general I like to listen to hymns and liturgical music.

— Marilynne Robinson

Yes, I mean like you know, having studied with Yehudi Menuhin that is like some direct route into Bach, because he was one of…

— Nigel Kennedy

I began to realize that some of the things Ornette Coleman had said about things being played three or fours ways, independently of each…

— Miles Davis

Whenever you study composition you inevitably encounter Bach right off the bat. You can't get across the room without running into him and the…

— Howard Roberts

Bernard Herrmann used to write all his scores by himself. So did Bach, Beethoven and Stravinsky. I dont understand why this happens in the…

— Ennio Morricone

“The way we define opera circa 1700 may help us to throw light not just on the choices facing Bach and his brilliant peer…

— John Eliot Gardiner

The author's conviction on this day of New Year is that music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance; that…

— Ezra Pound

In Bach there is still too much crude Christianity, crude Germanism, crude scholasticism; he stands on the threshold of European (modern) music, but he…

— Friedrich Nietzsche

I used to listen to a lot of Bach on the radio, and when the basses started to sing, it made everything complete -…

— Charlie Haden

The music of Bach is without doubt the most sacred gift to the world of art.

— Heitor Villa-Lobos

“To wake up one day and be Steinway and Glen in One... Glen Steinway, Steinway Glen, all for Bach.”

— Thomas Bernhard

I would send the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach into outer space on the Voyager spacecraft. But that would be boasting.

— Lewis Thomas

“You're the kind of child who might develop a passion for Bach." I told him I hadn't at school. The one Bach piece I…

— Dodie Smith

“You'll have a good, secure life when being alive means more to you than security, love more than money, your freedom more than public…

— Wilhelm Reich