One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.

One time I introduced my orchestra as the Shampoo Music Makers instead of the Champagne Music Makers.

Once music ceases to be ephemeral - always disappearing - and becomes instead material... it leaves the condition of traditional music and enters the condition of painting. It becomes a painting existing as material in space not immaterial in time.

The trouble with music appreciation in general is that people are taught to have too much respect for music they should be taught to love it instead.

I'm a visual thinker really bad at algebra. There's others that are a pattern thinker. These are the music and math minds. They think in patterns instead of pictures. Then there's another type that's not a visual thinker at all and they're the ones that memorize all of the sports statistics all of the weather statistics.

If it were the Clinton people they'd be sitting around figuring out how to pull themselves out. Instead the president is continuing to go around the country and peddling Social Security which the needle is not moving on.

Don't dwell on what went wrong. Instead focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer.

I didn't know this about myself but when 'Pirates of the Caribbean' came out I realised that I didn't enjoy a huge amount of recognition. I didn't react to it well but I think life is about finding out who you are and what you like. So I started doing independent movies and art-house films instead.

With the CGI suddenly there's a thousand enemies instead of six - the army goes off into the horizon. You don't need that. The audience loses its relationship with the threat on the screen. That's something that's consistently happening and it makes these movies like video games and that's a soulless enterprise. It's all kinetics without emotion.

Sometimes I miss out the morning's painting session and instead study my Japanese books in the open.