Virgil Thomson Quotes

• I said to my friends that if I was going to starve, I might as well starve where the food is good.

  Virgil Thomson

  Food, Might, Said

  57 Copy quote

• Try a thing you haven't done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time to figure out whether you like it or not.

  Virgil Thomson

  Inspirational, Wisdom, Fear

  38 Copy quote

• In Paris, you learn wit, in London you learn to crush your social rivals, and in Florence you learn poise.

  Virgil Thomson

  Crush, Paris, Florence

  34 Copy quote

• I seem to write an opera about every 20 years; if you live long enough you can write four operas. I finished my third in 1970.

  Virgil Thomson

  Writing, Years, Long

  31 Copy quote

• Let your mind alone, and see what happens.

  Virgil Thomson

  Imagination, Mind, Happens

  29 Copy quote

• The way to write American music is simple. All you have to do is be an American and then write any kind of music you wish.

  Virgil Thomson

  Writing, Simple, Wish

  Quoted in Machlis Introduction to Contemporary Music (1963).

  24 Copy quote

• I listened to the pure crystalline notes of one of Mozart's concertos dropping at my feet like leaves from the trees.

  Virgil Thomson

  Feet, Tree, Dropping

  23 Copy quote

• I've never known a musician who regretted being one. Music itself is not going to let you down.

  Virgil Thomson

  Musician, Known

  19 Copy quote

• A libretto that should never have been accepted on a subject that should never have been chosen bya man who should never have attempted it.

  Virgil Thomson

  Men, Accepted, Should

  1935 Of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. Modern Music.

  17 Copy quote

• Musicians own music because music owns them.

  Virgil Thomson

  Musician

  11 Copy quote

• Reviewing music or reviewing anything is a writing job. It's nice if you are experienced in the field you are writing about, but writing is what you are doing.

  Virgil Thomson

  Jobs, Nice, Writing

  Virgil Thomson (1984). “A Virgil Thomson reader”, Plume

  15 Copy quote

• I never learned to verbalize an abstract musical concept. No thank you. The whole point of being a serious musician is to avoid verbalization whenever you can.

  Virgil Thomson

  Thank You, Musical, Musician

  10 Copy quote

• I got myself into a lovely little shall we say controversy with André Breton, by pointing out that the discipline of spontaneity, which he was asking his surrealist neophytes to adopt, was new for language but something that composers had been practicing for centuries.

  Virgil Thomson

  Discipline, Lovely, Asking

  Virgil Thomson (1984). “A Virgil Thomson reader”, Plume

  14 Copy quote

• Every composer's music reflects in its subject-matter and in its style the source of the money the composer is living on while writing the music.

  Virgil Thomson

  Writing, Style, Matter

  Virgil Thomson (1984). “A Virgil Thomson reader”, Plume

  10 Copy quote

• Verbal communication about music is impossible except among musicians.

  Virgil Thomson

  Communication, Musician, Impossible

  Virgil Thomson (2016). “The State of Music: A Library of America E-Book Classic”, p.21, Library of America

  10 Copy quote

• The description and explanation is the best part of music reviewing. There is such a thing, and you know it too, as a gift for judgment. If you have it, you can say anything you like. If you haven't got it, you don't know you haven't got it.

  Virgil Thomson

  Say Anything, Judgment, Description

  9 Copy quote

• I don't care what other critics say, I only hope to be played.

  Virgil Thomson

  Care, I Don't Care, Don't Care

  9 Copy quote

• I don't go around regretting things that don't happen.

  Virgil Thomson

  Regret, Happens

  7 Copy quote

• Whatever deceptions life may have in store for you, music itself is not going to let you down.

  Virgil Thomson

  Musical Life, Deception, May

  9 Copy quote

• You explain how it went, and as far as you can figure out how it got that way.

  Virgil Thomson

  Way, Figures

  7 Copy quote

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