James Sellars quotes

“I would like to hear Elliot Carter's Fourth String Quartet, if only to discover what a cranky prostate does to one's polyphony.”
-- James Sellars

#Musical Quotes #Doe Quotes #Strings Quotes

“The Analytical Engine] might act upon other things besides number, were objects found whose mutual fundamental relations could be expressed by those of the abstract science of operations, and which should be also susceptible of adaptations to the action of the operating notation and mechanism of the engine… Supposing, for instance, that the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent.”

“Since the age of 12, all my musical thinking has been influenced by Afro-American music.”

“Every musical movement that is big enough has to produce some good musicians who wouldn't have had the incentive to start playing without it.”

“God does not so much want us to do things as to let people see what He can do.”

“Oh, wonderful. I killed his father. He hates me. He knows how to make bombs. Come on, Wedge, how does this story end?”

Source : Michael A. Stackpole, Aaron Allston (2016). “The X-Wing Series: Star Wars Legends 10-Book Bundle: Rogue Squadron, Wedge's Gamble, The Krytos Trap, The Bacta War, Wraith Squadron ,Iron Fist, Solo Command, Isard's Revenge, Starfighters of Adumar, Mercy Kill”, p.1629, Del Rey

“I gravitate toward the larger worldview questions such as, Why are we here? What are we supposed to be doing? What does it mean to know another person? To love someone? Of course, those questions are sort of in the background as I'm playing with language in the foreground, but those are the informing questions.”

Source : "Cartographer of Word Galaxies". The Believer interview, logger.believermag.com. September 24, 2013.

“Lay down the song you strum, And rest yourself 'neath the strength of strings No voice can hope to hum.”

“I felt that, in retrospect, there was a time in the late Seventies, after I had a string of hits and successes, as a performer and a recording artist, that I wasn't saying anything.”

“In an age of iPhones and Playstations, it's great to see that somebody's still rocking the bus-on-a-string.”

“I boil the strings so they stretch.”