I was supposed to be a doctor. I was supposed to go to Princeton. And everything I was supposed to do I didn’t. Samuel Barber Read Quote
I think that what’s been holding composers back a great deal is that they feel they must have a new style every year. This, in my case, would be hopeless. In fact, it is said that I have no style at all, but that doesn’t matter. I just go on doing, as they say, my thing. I believe this takes a certain courage. Samuel Barber Read Quote
I was meant to be a composer and will be I’m sure. Don’t ask me to try to forget this unpleasant thing and go play football – please. Samuel Barber Read Quote
I can only say that I myself wrote always as I wished, without a tremendous desire to find the latest thing possible. Samuel Barber Read Quote
As for my own music, I’ve never written a book about it. I’m not pedagogical… When I write an abstract piano sonata or a concerto, I write what I feel. I’m not a self-conscious composer. Samuel Barber Read Quote
I guess, for better or for worse, I am an American composer, and I’ve had a wonderful life being exactly that. Samuel Barber Read Quote
I was 7 years old when I began composing. I began composing, improvising at the piano, the usual story. Samuel Barber Read Quote
I’ve had little success in intellectual circles. I’m not talked about in the ‘New York Review of Books,’ and I was never part of the Stravinsky ‘inner circle.’ Samuel Barber Read Quote
