The story of Willie Stark fascinated me because it was tackling the story of a man who outwardly has all the success one could possibly want and who is destroyed by his personal demons.

There is something inherent in our democracy that tends to want to level. America is a little uncomfortable in the presence of someone who is distinctly superior in whatever way.

There's the Bacon society, which is fostered by his fourth wife Helen Bacon, but I don't know what kind of performances his music gets. He wrote symphonic music and some chorale music.

We don't have access to a national forum that we had in those days, through the news magazines which were the television news of the time. It's very disturbing to me that we've sort of been pushed to the corners.

We think the Puritans always dressed in black and white, which they didn't. They loved very bright colors. And there were other differences in perceptions that gave one a very different view of them.

What is American music? The most satisfying answer I've come across is that it was a kind of natural comfort with the vernacular which is diverse and regional; it's not one particular set of sounds.

The artist is something of an outsider in America. I have always felt that America does not value its artists, certainly not in the sense that the Europeans do.

America tends to worship the modest talent because it doesn't put us in an uncomfortable position vis-a-vis the artist.

Anyone who creates something new or does something different artistically is going to be singled out.

I found a certain kind of music congenial to me; it never occurred to me to write music that was academically acceptable.

I think anything that is expressed directly and as honestly as possible will last.

I was encouraged by my mother and, to a lesser extent, by my father.

I've never set out consciously to write American music. I don't know what that would be unless the obvious Appalachian folk references.

If I felt that one of my operas did not come off I would certainly say so.

It seems to me opera is just as relevant as an expressive art as anything else.

Most of the important composers in our country are clustered in the Northeast.

Opera is given so little attention in the national press.

Our most intimate contact with civilizations long since dust has been through the art which has survived them.

When I've seen my operas in Europe, they have always struck me as more American than when I hear them here. I can't tell you what that phenomenon is.

You can't possibly predict what will last or not. But once you attempt to write for the ages, you're doomed.