“I can only say that I myself wrote always as I wished, without a treme...” — Samuel Barber Quote

“I can only say that I myself wrote always as I wished, without a tremendous desire to find the latest thing possible.”

“There's no reason music should be difficult for an audience to understand.”

“I think that what's been holding composers back a great deal is that they feel they must have a new style every year. This, in my case, would be hopeless. In fact, it is said that I have no style at all, but that doesn't matter. I just go on doing, as they say, my thing. I believe this takes a certain courage.”

“I was supposed to be a doctor. I was supposed to go to Princeton. And everything I was supposed to do I didn't.”

“As for my own music, I've never written a book about it. I'm not pedagogical... When I write an abstract piano sonata or a concerto, I write what I feel. I'm not a self-conscious composer.”

“I was 7 years old when I began composing. I began composing, improvising at the piano, the usual story.”

“When someone is successful, there's always a feeling that they were lucky. Luck plays a part, sure, but to be successful, you must have iron discipline. You must have energy and hunger and desire and honesty.”

“It's human desire to be understood. And we always feel we're not understood.”

“My heart's desire is that people will listen to the Lord and his leading and really dive into the fullness of what He's called them to do, whatever that looks like.”

“If you desire many things, many things will seem few.”

“I can score 20 points if I want to, but that's not my desire.”

“'To Die For,' with Nicole Kidman, is great - her desire to be a part of news, how she uses news to further her career and how it can drive you insane. I love that movie.”