"The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put first."

"I am an Anglo-Catholic in religion, a classicist in literature and a royalist in politics."

"I will show you fear in a handful of dust."

"Every experience is a paradox in that it means to be absolute, and yet is relative in that it somehow always goes beyond itself and yet never escapes itself."

"I maintain that when I finally retire from my career in music, I will go and live back in Wales - when I am an old person, if I live to be an old person. The water I miss, and the air, there's something different about it. And I miss the simple life."

"What we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument."

"The tapestry of existence shows us that the melody of life is composed of both highs and lows."

"I used to go to Bourbon Street when I was a kid and there would be club after club after club of people who were around when the music started. I mean these are legendary, maybe not so well known, but legendary musicians."