Born Quote by Dmitri Shostakovich

The composer does not sit around and wait for an inspiration to walk up and introduce itself…Making music is actually little else than a…

— George Gershwin

I think the reason composers aren't valued is because many act as servants rather than music directors. Instead of taking a stand based on…

— M. Jayachandran

Thus, if a composer wants to produce music that is relevant to his contemporaries, his chief problem is not really musical, though it may…

— John Blacking

I think the purpose of a piece of music is significant when it actually lives in somebody else. A composer puts down a code,…

— Yo-Yo Ma

An artist earns the right to call himself a creator only when he admits to himself that he is but an instrument.

— Henry Miller

I've always felt that music is an art form that deserves to live the life of the artist.

— Roger Daltrey

“For I consider that music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all, whether a feeling, an attitude of mind,…

— Igor Stravinsky

A composer knows that music is written by human beings for human beings and that music is a continuation of life, not something separated…

— Hanns Eisler

Well, one is inspired by the whole of life, one's own and somebody else's. You know how sometimes you hear great music, and music…

— Wislawa Szymborska

For whatever reason, not all people are born with the particular gift of being able to express ourselves through music. And, believe me, it…

— Billy Joel

The piece of music is nothing without the act of interpretation. That is the only way it can live, and it's a totally abstract…

— Helene Grimaud

Every artist makes himself born. It is very much harder than the other time, and longer.

— Willa Cather