You have to know composition to be a good improviser.

I put myself in the student's place and remember the frustrations, doubts, determination, and desires I felt when I was going through the initial…

— Ted Martinez

“The composition of Shakespeare is a forest, in which oaks extend in the air, interspersed sometimes with weeds and brambles, and sometimes giving shelting…

— Samuel Johnson

At the risk of some oversimplification, if the skill composition of our work force meshed fully with the needs of our increasingly complex capital-stock,…

— Alan Greenspan

Writers and musicians know well the importance of extensive reading for successful writing or extensive listening for musical composition. Likewise, visual artists... understand that…

— Paul Laseau

A composition is always more than the sum of its parts. In other words, a really good piece of music is more than itself.…

— Yo-Yo Ma

When I start writing a new imaginary future, I have no idea what it is. The characters arrive first. They help me figure out…

— William Gibson

Though I cannot claim to be a Christian in the sectarian sense, the example of Jesus suffering is a factor in the composition of…

— Mahatma Gandhi

I always look at money not as a motivating factor but as an element in the composition. You can't ignore it, but you've got…

— Damien Hirst

The unary Photograph has every reason to be banal, 'unity' of composition being the first rule of vulgar (and notably, of academic) rhetoric: 'The…

— Roland Barthes

Musical compositions, it should be remembered, do not inhabit certain countries, certain museums, like paintings and statues. The Mozart Quintet is not shut up…

— Henri Rabaud

Science does not enter a chaotic society to put order into it anymore, to simplify its composition, and to put an end to controversies.…

— Bruno Latour

If measure and symmetry are absent from any composition in any degree, ruin awaits both the ingredients and the composition... Measure and symmetry are…

— Socrates

If you really want to be a good archaeologist, you have to understand ancient DNA; you have to understand chemical analysis to figure out…

— Sarah Parcak

Oil companies are radical because they're willing to alter the chemical composition of the atmosphere.

— Bill McKibben

Composition is definitely what I'm born to do, and it came last.

— David Friedman