Morton Gould

“What do you do with a popular melody? You can't just play it and repeat it. You have to do something with it.”

“I don't think in terms of 'serious' or 'light' music. I think in terms of music.”

“Composing is a lonely business.”

“My whole thinking is in terms of creating a new sound, a new texture, a new sonority.”

“A conductor has to be a catalyst; he has to make things happen.”

“I feel very strongly that you have to be true to yourself. You have to write what you feel you have to write.”

“I've always been interested in the American sound.”