“The link between us and music consists in choosing what we like and makes us feel good, not what is imposed on us.”

“Life consists not simply in what heredity and environment do to us but in what we make out of what they do to us.”

“To choose this or that is to affirm at the same time the value of what we choose, because we can never choose evil. We always choose the good, and nothing can be good for us without being good for all.”

“A great sorrow, and one that I am only beginning to understand: we don’t get to choose our own hearts. We can’t make ourselves want what’s good for us or what’s good for other people. We don’t get to choose the people we are.”

“… but it doesn't feel crazy to us.
It feels like what we do.”

“We think we understand a song's lyrics but what makes us believe in them, or not, is the music”

“Criticism is twofold: that which teaches us what we are to choose, and that which teaches us what to avoid.”

“What is imposed on us by birth and environment is what we are called upon to overcome.”

“Honesty consists not in never stealing but in knowing where to stop in stealing, and how to make good use of what one does steal.”

“You do not ask what is the value, or what is the use, of this feeling. Of what use is the universe? What is the practical application of a million galaxies? Yet just because it has no use, it has a use—which may sound like a paradox, but is not. What, for instance, is the use of playing music? If you play to make money, to outdo some other artist, to be a person of culture, or to improve your mind, you are not really playing—for your mind is not on the music. You don't swing. When you come to think of it, playing or listening to music is a pure luxury, an addiction, a waste of valuable time and money for nothing more than making elaborate patterns of sound.”