I guess, for better or for worse, I am an American…

“I guess, for better or for worse, I am an American composer, and I've had a wonderful life being exactly that.”

Samuel Barber

About This Quote

This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.

He acknowledges his identity as an American composer and reflects on a fulfilling, authentic life.

In simple terms: He is proud to be an American composer with a satisfying life.

Key Takeaway

Own your identity and celebrate your journey.

Themes

identity pride career

Mood

reflective proud

Type

cultural personal

When to use this quote

career retrospection
cultural contribution
legacy planning

Key Concepts

American music personal fulfillment

Questions to Reflect On

What does it mean to live authentically?
How does national identity shape artistic work?

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet

More by Samuel Barber

I was supposed to be a doctor. I was supposed to go to Princeton. And everything I was supposed to do I didn't.

Samuel Barber

I was 7 years old when I began composing. I began composing, improvising at the piano, the usual story.

Samuel Barber

I can only say that I myself wrote always as I wished, without a tremendous desire to find the latest thing possible.

Samuel Barber

I have always believed that I need a circumference of silence. As to what happens to when I composer, I really haven't the faintest…

Samuel Barber

I've had little success in intellectual circles. I'm not talked about in the 'New York Review of Books,' and I was never part of…

Samuel Barber

As for my own music, I've never written a book about it. I'm not pedagogical... When I write an abstract piano sonata or a…

Samuel Barber

I was meant to be a composer and will be I'm sure. Don't ask me to try to forget this unpleasant thing and go…

Samuel Barber

I think that what's been holding composers back a great deal is that they feel they must have a new style every year. This,…

Samuel Barber

He is a lyric poet . . . aloof from the swirling currents in which many of his colleagues are immersed.

Samuel Barber

There's no reason music should be difficult for an audience to understand.

Samuel Barber

How awful that the artist has become nothing but the after-dinner mint of society,

Samuel Barber

Explore all 12 Samuel Barber quotes

More American quotes

I wasn't attracted to American cinema, but I fell in love with Los Angeles the minute I arrived.

Agnes Varda

William Maxwell's my favorite North American writer, I think. And an Irish writer who used to write for 'The New Yorker' called Maeve Brennan,…

Alice Munro

I have fallen in love with American names, the sharp names that never get fat.

Stephen Vincent Benet

I really like a lot of American country stuff, so my music has that influence, but I don't like to be set within a…

Jade Bird

I certainly don't think that the heirs of the American Revolution were a particularly noble class.

H. W. Brands

Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act in a tremendous investment to support millions of workers without a paycheck and behind on bills.

Jake Auchincloss

Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy and employ almost half of the working population. Yet because of their size, they rarely…

Dan Lipinski

Although I write in English, and despite the fact that I'm from America, I consider myself an Armenian writer. The words I use are…

William Saroyan

When we first sold the Wallace and Gromit shorts to America, people suggested we get rid of the strange British accents and put clear…

Nick Park

Firefighters and rescue workers are American superheroes.

Kerry Kennedy

France has not only built a bureaucratic barrier against American culture, it has constructed a notorious intellectual case against it as well. The French…

Tyler Cowen

New York and San Francisco are distinctly different. San Francisco is driving the American media, not New York. You have young, microwaved millionaires and…

Jason Whitlock