William Bolcom

“The worst thing you can do to a piece of music is to be reverential to it.”

“I've tried to be a sponge, in a way. I've soaked up a lot of things, and I've tried to give them back in a different form.”

“To be an American is to be an eclectic.”

“I don't think there's any such thing as a 'serious' composer or a 'light' composer. There are just good composers and bad composers.”

“I think the American musical theater is one of our greatest artistic contributions.”

“All the musics are just musics in the end.”

“The only thing that has to be 'new' is the feeling.”

“Ragtime is the folk music of the city.”

“The idea of a composer in an ivory tower is a very romantic and, I think, a very silly notion.”

“For me, the cabaret song is a small, intense musical drama.”

“You have to have a certain amount of chutzpah to be a composer.”

“Every note has to have a reason for being there.”

“I am interested in the history of all music and how it relates to social history.”

“You learn from everything you do.”