"George Rochberg once said that 'to be a composer, you need to have fire in the belly, fire in the brain, but most importantly, an iron stomach.' I feel this is for the most part true, and hope I might convey something of it to younger composers."

-- Michael Hersch

#Iron Quotes #Fire Quotes #Brain Quotes

“I wake up every morning and I wish I were dead, and so does Jim.”
“Mathematicians are inexorably drawn to nature, not just describing what is to be found there, but in creating echoes of natural laws.”
“In spiritual life there is no room for compromise. Awakening is not negotiable; we cannot bargain to hold on to things that please us while relinquishing things that do not matter to us. A lukewarm yearning for awakening is not enough to sustain us through the difficulties involved in letting go. It is important to understand that anything that can be lost was never truly ours, anything that we deeply cling to only imprisons us.”
“I wonder whats wrong with me. Sometimes I just keep wanting to go deeper and deeper into the world of self destruction. Like as if I want to see myself fail completely and disappear.”
“Truth must the guide of those who hold the power; but humility is their sign, the promise that their privileges are in safe hands.”

Source : "Speaking Of Canada" by Vincent Massey. Address at the Convocation of the University of British Columbia, May 18, 1954, 1959.
“Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector.”
“Lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. The art of losing isn't hard to master.”

Source : Elizabeth Bishop (2015). “Poems”, p.198, Macmillan
“I don't like to see players tossed off needlessly.”

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