Alan Hovhaness Quotes

This is not to say that the Scots are not fine people, but they were all sort of… well, my grandfather was a minister and sort of Protestant, and this was rather depressing to me.

There were periods when I sometimes made fires in a large, open fireplace that lasted about two weeks, which was how long it took to burn my compositions. So there has been an awful lot that I have destroyed.

There is nothing like practice.

My mother’s background was Scottish. She came from an old family, some of whom lived in upper New York State and some of whom had come over from Scotland.

It’s hard for me to think of others because I’m not particularly in sympathy with the music of this century.