Aaron Copland

To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable.

Inspiration may be a form of super-consciousness, or perhaps of sub-consciousness-I wouldn't know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self-consciousness.

Listening to the Fifth Symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams is like staring at a cow for forty-five minutes.

Arthur V. Berger commenting on the music of Aaron Copland: Here is at last an American that we may place unapologetically beside the great recognized creative figures of any other country.