"When Sam Harris was preparing a Chicago company of Of Thee I Sing after it won the Pulitzer Prize, George, Ira, Harris and I were on the train to attend the opening. I thought it would be fun to ask Harris, with George sitting there, who his favorite composer was. Without hesitation Harris answered, "George Cohan," and began to sing Cohan songs and tell Cohan stories. George wasn't irritated at all, as anyone else might have been; he was just amused."

"I like to think of music as an emotional science."

"While the doctors were sawing away at Ira's midriff, I submitted a variety of ideas to George. One of the most successful was the title of the best song in the show, "Someone to Watch Over Me." I wrote and was credited with two songs: "Oh, Kay" and "Heaven On Earth." I wrote the verse for the spiritual number "Clap Yo' Hands" and a lyric called "That Certain Something You've Got," but Ira changed the lyrics and called it "Oh, Kay, You're O.K. with Me." It was the title song of the show and the least distinguished. Ira made me a present of the credit for it. It was the opposite of plagiarism; we call it donorism. George, realizing that any sum he paid me would have to come out of Ira's royalties, paid me next to nothing. It was decided that I was to get 1¢ for every copy of sheet music that was sold. When Ira sent me my first paycheck it was for 96¢. Some time shortly thereafter, Ira wrote asking if I minded canceling the arrangement which involved a lot of bookkeeping for such small sums. I said no, I didn't mind. I was proud to work with the great Gershwin. I would've done it for nothing, which I did."

"An entire composition written in jazz could not live."

"There is no better way to spend an evening than listening to George Gershwin at the piano. Fortunately for his audience, he seldom was away from it. He played his own tunes to Ira's special lyrics and though his voice was pure gravel it was special entertainment."

"Not many composers have ideas. Far more of them know how to use strange instruments which do not require ideas."

"A skyscraper is at the same time a triumph of the machine and a tremendous emotional experience, almost breath-taking. Not merely its height but its mass and proportions are the result of an emotion, as well as of calculation."

"It certainly will be if you are still around."

"When jazz is played in another nation, it is called American. When it is played in another country, it sounds false. Jazz is the result of the energy stored up in America."

"I frequently hear music in the heart of noise."

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

"The European boys have small ideas but they sure know how to dress 'em up."

"The composer does not sit around and wait for an inspiration to walk up and introduce itself…Making music is actually little else than a matter of invention aided and abetted by emotion. In composing we combine what we know of music with what we feel."

"Modern European composers ... have very largely received their stimulus, their rhythms and impulses from Machine Age America. They have a much older tradition of musical technique which has helped them put into musical terms a little more clearly the thoughts that originated here. They can express themselves more glibly."

"Tell me, George, if you had it to do all over, would you fall in love with yourself again?"

"I am attracted only to music which I consider to be better than it can be performed. Therefore I feel (rightly or wrongly) that unless a piece of music presents a problem to me, a never-ending problem, it doesn't interest me too much."

"Children are given Mozart because of the small quantity of the notes; grown-ups avoid Mozart because of the great quality of the notes."

"The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes – ah, that is where the art resides."

"I know two kinds of audience only – one coughing, and one not coughing."

"Gotta kill these pains Or blow out my brains To free me from these chains I'm trapped in this physical hell To walk again I just might sell my soul And I'm only twenty somethin' years old"

"So if you've had enough and are ready for your stand I'll be waiting with the stone that's in my hand."

"There are two things about Schnabel. I think he was certainly one of the most important influences of the twentieth century, pretty much on all music. But what was most striking was the level of inspiration every time his fingers touched the keyboard. It was a highly moving, almost kind of life-transformative experience. And one of the reasons was there was little caprice in his approach to music. ‘Because I feel it that way’ was never a sufficient reason to do something; that is arbitrary and it had no place in his lessons either. Everything that he did, he could point to the text, and the text - an urtext, an original text - was terribly important to him. His edition of the Beethoven sonatas is so instructive because his ideas and suggestions are in a different print than what Beethoven wrote; you can always distinguish between Beethoven and Schnabel. But that kind of dedication, that kind of musical integrity to the desires and instructions from the composer, gave it an authenticity that was irresistible, and that was combined with his level of inspiration. Very quickly, it became impossible to distinguish between Mozart and Schnabel, Beethoven and Schnabel, or Schubert and Schnabel; he became the musical personification of the composer, which is why it was so irresistible what he did."

"Applause is a receipt, not a note of demand."

"Schnabel himself was an extraordinary composer, and actually thought of himself more as a composer than as a pianist. He wrote absolutely rhapsodic music, and endless pieces. All of his pieces, I think, are 45 minutes long! (laughs) Nothing of the little tidbit variety for him…"

"There's never gonna be a moment of truth for you While the world is watching All you need is the thing you forgotten And that's to learn to live with what you are."

"When you don't care then You've got nothing to lose And I won't hesitate Because every moment life is slipping away It's okay."

"I refuse to rot like my contemporaries I want to explode in a karaoke supernova I don't wanna grow old Won't you let me, won't you let me explode?"

"I stay focused on details It keeps me from feeling the big things But watch the microscope long enough Things that seem still are still changing"

"You nodded off in my arms watching tv I won’t move you an inch Even though my arm’s asleep."

"Notes don't make music until you learn to insert silence between them."

"Why you gotta act like you know, if you don't know? It's okay if you don't know everything."

"You have made me smile again In fact, I might be sore from it. It's been a while I know we've been together many times before I'll see you on the other side."

"Who knows why some satellites come by and by while others disappear into the sky."

"So much time and so little to say.."

"This morning I wake to be older than you were Fresh white snow for miles Every footstep will be mine."

"Would you look at me I'm crazy But I get the job done Yeah, I'm crazy but I get the job done."

"Now that I have found someone I'm feeling more alone Than I ever have before."

"I don't get Many things right the first time In fact, I am told that a lot Now I know all the wrong turns And stumbles and falls Brought me here."

"All this breathing in Never breathing out."

"Last night I was east with them And west within Trying to be for you what you wanna see."

"I feel like a quote out of context, withholding the rest so I can be for you what you want to see."

"Good morning, son In twenty years from now Maybe we'll both sit down and have a few beers And I can tell you 'bout today And how I picked you up and everything changed."

"What is this thing called love? This funny thing called love? Just who can solve this mystery? Why should it make a fool of me?"

"If you want to buy my wares Follow me and climb the stairs … Love for sale."

"There's an, oh such a hungry yearning burning inside of me."

"The wit of his words depended on his ability to raise the audience immediately to his own level — and keep it there. The instant happiness that Porter gave his audience is the kind that becomes history."

"Yeah. Cole Porter, but he was taken."

"In a way no other songs of the period quite did, Porter's created a world. It was a between–the–wars realm of drop–dead chic and careless name–dropping insouciance. And it was a sexy place to be invited."

"Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above. Don't fence me in. Let me ride through the wide open country that I love Don't fence me in Let me be by myself in the evenin' breeze And listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees Send me off forever but I ask you please Don't fence me in"

"So kiss me Kate, Thou lovely loon, E'er we start on our honeymoon. Oh, kiss me, Kate, Darling devil divine, For now thou shall ever be mine."