William Bolcom Quotes
I knew I was going to be composing. It all makes sense in retrospect. But you don't know while you're in the process of improvising your life.
Quotes to Explore
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I'm a mother of three. I don't really have the time to put very elaborate outfits together, so I keep it casual but dress it up with shoes, a bag, and jewellery.
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There is no rational reason to doubt that the universe has existed indefinitely, for an infinite time. It is only myth that attempts to say how the universe came to be, either four thousand or twenty billion years ago.
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It is not true that I dictate what should be done. There is a dialogue.
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I've only twice in my life come across someone with both high IQ and high EQ naturally; and that was because their parents were super high EQ, and the parents just EQ'd the hell out of them. They're inevitably very successful because now you've got someone who's sharper than the average person and well-rounded, too.
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It's pretty hard to make out what's going to be a commercial success and what's not.
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In some sense, what you might have suspected from the first day of high-school chemistry is true: The periodic table is a colossal waste of time. Nine out of every 10 atoms in the universe are hydrogen, the first element and the major constituent of stars. The other 10 percent of all atoms are helium.
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I like to write with a lot of emotion and a lot of power. Sometimes I overdo it; sometimes my prose is a little bit too purple, and I know that.
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Respect for women was a very important part of my upbringing.
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If I can put it together, I've got an opportunity to win.
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I grew up in a hippie commune so I have a real hippie part of me.
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Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.
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I wasn't a very good student in elementary school and had a hard time with reading and writing.
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I prefer doing interviews where people don't have to interpret what you say. I'm going to be real honest.
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In a city like New York, any night can be completely different, even in a subtle way.
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I view Bitcoin as the more democratic version of money and value transfer because no one controls it... I expect the Internet to be around longer than any nation-state, so a nation-state-backed currency is actually less safe than an Internet currency in my mind.
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I think one of my first jokes - in the black community, there's people who have jokes about skin tone. People like, 'You so black, you purple.' 'You so black, you gotta smile so we can see you at night.'
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I got a cable from New York saying that what I'd written about the growth of Soviet agricultural production didn't make sense because the same levels were reached under the czars. I wanted to confirm it, but by then the censors were on to me.
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In 1995, the Clinton Administration reached an agreement with Cuban government that any refugee caught at sea would be sent back to Cuba while any refugee who reaches the United States shores would be allowed to begin the process to citizenship after one year.
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The reason I dislike talking about the creative process is that I do have a creative process that is a winner and it's a sure thing.
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The process is always the same. I get an inspiration for a new song, I put it down on paper immediately so I won't lose it. When I am ready to go to the studio with it, I play it a few times on the piano and edit, add, and type the lyrics and take it to the studio. Sometimes I don't have anything on paper.
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I still have my eyes on the prize: I want to be that old lady onstage shaking her hips and singing her greatest hits.
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I knew I was going to be composing. It all makes sense in retrospect. But you don't know while you're in the process of improvising your life.
