Is it not our duty to find the symphonic formula which fits our time, one which progress, daring and modern victory demand? The century of airplanes has a right to its own music.

A new music is a new mind.

I wish I could write well enough to write about aircraft. Faulkner did it very well in Pylon but you cannot do something someone else has done though you might have done it if they hadn't.

I just don't hear anyone else making the music I'm making in my head, so I'll have to do it myself.

I thought that for this musical genre there was nothing better than being original.

In order to compose, all you need to do is remember a tune that nobody else has thought of.

And I think that this is something that we must all do in this day and age: I think if one is going to pursue performance at a time when the greatest performances of the past and of the present have been made permanent in the record catalogues where anyone can hear [them], one must indeed recompose it or find another way to make a living. I don't think there is an excuse for a performance that simply duplicates what's been done before.

I make elevating music, you make elevator music

I feel that if any songs are gonna come out of World War III, we'd better start writing them now.

My people are American, my time is today…music must repeat the thought and aspirations of the times.

I am now satisfied that the future music of this country must be founded upon what are called negro melodies. This must be the real foundation of any serious and original school of composition to be developed in the United States.

I always feel that I must do something new, at least for my fans.

I like to think that if music hadn't existed, I could have invented it.

It’s time to sing a new song. A song that began 248 years ago. The old notes of downfall, discord, despair, no longer resonate. Our generations of loved ones before us are whispering a prophecy, a quest, a calling, an anthem. Our moment right now. It’s time for America to sing a new song. Our voices sing a chorus of unity. They sing a song of dignity and opportunity. Are y’all ready to add your voice to the new American song? Because I am. So let’s do this!