"Pain is like a new room in your house that you never knew you had. If you had known, you would have bolted and locked the room past any entering. But truly, it is a room like any other, four glaring white walls and a dark hard floor, and if you don't try to get out, it is possible to remain in it. Once you tried to get out, you ... couldn't ... stand ... it. Don't think of getting out."

“Wisdom is the essential basis of greatness.”

“Jazz is not the popular culture. Jazz is in the same position in our culture as classical music. A very small minority of people really love it.”

Source : "The Gospel According To John Corigliano". Interview with Frank J. Oteri, www.newmusicbox.org. February 01, 2005.

“The United Nations offers international legitimacy in what we might do.”

Source : "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert, www.nbcnews.com. April 15, 2007.

“I stood face to face with the moon and the ocean and the future that spread out with all its bewildering immensity before me.”

Source : Pat Conroy (1995). “Beach Music”, Nan A. Talese

“Hitler could not tolerate too much social contact.”

“I am a professed atheist, until I find myself in serious circumstances. Then I quickly fall on my knees, in my mind if not literally, and I say : 'Please God, save me from this.'”

“No verse can give pleasure for long, nor last, that is written by drinkers of water.”

“I'm neutral on lying, seeing as how there's times when the truth just hurts people.”