"I have been called the 'Picasso of music.' I myself have never said that. I have always preferred to be myself."

"I received two letters from him. I wrote him October 25 in New York and asked him for word of his arrival plans in Hollywood. I expected a telegram from him announcing the hour of his airplane. On Nov…"

"A cultural snob is someone who claims to be familiar with the incomprehensible."

"Beauty is certainly a thing that exists, but it has no absolute value."

"I don't write modern music. I write good music."