Virgil Thomson Quotes and Sayings - Page 1

“I said to my friends that if I was going to starve, I might as well starve where the food is good.”
-- Virgil Thomson

#Food #Might #Said
“Let your mind alone, and see what happens.”
-- Virgil Thomson

#Mind
“I never learned to verbalize an abstract musical concept. No thank you. The whole point of being a serious musician is to avoid verbalization whenever you can.”
-- Virgil Thomson

#Thank You #Musical #Serious
“The description and explanation is the best part of music reviewing. There is such a thing, and you know it too, as a gift for judgment. If you have it, you can say anything you like. If you haven't got it, you don't know you haven't got it.”
-- Virgil Thomson

#Say Anything #Judgment #Description
“Whatever deceptions life may have in store for you, music itself is not going to let you down.”
-- Virgil Thomson

#Deception #May #Stores
“Try a thing you haven't done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time to figure out whether you like it or not.”
-- Virgil Thomson

#Inspirational #Fear #Failure
“Musicians own music because music owns them.”
-- Virgil Thomson

#Musician
“I got myself into a lovely little shall we say controversy with AndrÃ© Breton, by pointing out that the discipline of spontaneity, which he was asking his surrealist neophytes to adopt, was new for language but something that composers had been practicing for centuries.”
-- Virgil Thomson

#Discipline #Lovely #Asking
“A libretto that should never have been accepted on a subject that should never have been chosen bya man who should never have attempted it.”
-- Virgil Thomson

#Men #Accepted #Should
“I seem to write an opera about every 20 years; if you live long enough you can write four operas. I finished my third in 1970.”
-- Virgil Thomson

#Writing #Years #Long
“I don't care what other critics say, I only hope to be played.”
-- Virgil Thomson

#Care
“You explain how it went, and as far as you can figure out how it got that way.”
-- Virgil Thomson

#Way #Figures
“I don't go around regretting things that don't happen.”
-- Virgil Thomson

#Regret
“In Paris, you learn wit, in London you learn to crush your social rivals, and in Florence you learn poise.”
-- Virgil Thomson

#Crush #Paris #Rivals
“I've never known a musician who regretted being one. Music itself is not going to let you down.”
-- Virgil Thomson

#Musician
“Reviewing music or reviewing anything is a writing job. It's nice if you are experienced in the field you are writing about, but writing is what you are doing.”
-- Virgil Thomson

#Jobs #Nice #Writing
“The way to write American music is simple. All you have to do is be an American and then write any kind of music you wish.”
-- Virgil Thomson

#Writing #Simple #Wish
“Every composer's music reflects in its subject-matter and in its style the source of the money the composer is living on while writing the music.”
-- Virgil Thomson

#Writing #Style #Matter

Top 20 Quotes By Virgil Thomson A Z Quotes

Try A Thing You Haven T Done Three Times Statusmind Com

You may also like:

Aaron Copland
Composer
Charles Ives
Composer
Elliott Carter
Composer
Eugene Ormandy
Conductor
George Gershwin
Composer
Gertrude Stein
Writer
Igor Stravinsky
Composer
Jean Giraudoux
Novelist
John Cage
Composer
John Houseman
Actor
Leonard Bernstein
Composer
Ludwig van Beethoven
Composer
Michael Tippett
Composer
Nadia Boulanger
Composer
Ned Rorem
Composer
Roger Sessions
Composer
Samuel Barber
Composer
William Shakespeare
Poet
Jack Larson
Actor
Lou Harrison
Composer