Lukas Foss Quotes

It is obvious that anything a scientist discovers or invents is based on previous discoveries and inventions. The same applies to the arts.

Yes, influences are enriching, and they can be found in every work of art, even the most original.

Why do we pigeonhole and label an artist? It is a sure way of missing the important, the contradictory, the things that make him or her unique.

When I went back to visit my native Berlin after World War II, I noticed that the only thing I really remembered from my childhood Berlin days is the shoe store.

Truth is a big concept.

Truth implies meaning.

To understand Mozart’s contradictory qualities would indeed be to understand genius.

To me, Mozart is our Shakespeare, the one who wrote the most dramatic, psychologically most baffling music. He combined ideas that no one else would have thought of putting together.

To come to grips with creativity, I must ask creative, adventurous questions – the kind which, in all likelihood, cannot be answered.

There is another interesting paradox here: by immersing ourselves in what we love, we find ourselves. We do not lose ourselves. One does not lose one’s identity by falling in love.

The fact that Stravinsky used the classics as a major influence is obvious. What is interesting is how he used them, how he turned Bach into Stravinsky.

The creative act is like writing a letter. A letter is a project; you don’t sit down to write a letter unless you know what you want to say and to whom you want to say it.

The best way to investigate the elusive phenomenon called the creative process may well be to target all the misconceptions, to explain what the creative process is not.

That is why the analogy of stealing does not work. With a thief, we want to know how much money he stole, and from whom. With the artist it is not how much he took and from whom, but what he did with it.

Since age seven, I’ve been composing and have never stopped composing, yet, the creative process is as elusive to me as it has ever been.

Personality is essential. It is in every work of art. When someone walks on stage for a performance and has charisma, everyone is convinced that he has personality. I find that charisma is merely a form of showmanship. Movie stars usually have it. A politician has to have it.

My students frequently ask what their next project should be. My advice: immerse yourself in the music you love and you will find what you want to do; you will discover your next project.

Mozart wrote so many works in his thirty-five years that it would take a lifetime just to write out the notes. We literally do not know how he did it.

Most people think an artist tries to be original, but originality is the last thing that develops in the artist.

Most artists have experienced the creative block. We get stuck in our work. We beat our head against the wall: nothing. Sometimes, it is because we are trying something at the wrong time.