Virgil Thomson quotes

Let your mind alone, and see what happens. (Virgil Thomson)

Try a thing you haven't tried before three times once to get over the fear, once to find out how to do it, and a third time to find out whether you like it or not.

Virgil Thomson

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

Virgil Thomson

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

I look at you and I write down what I hear.

Virgil Thomson

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

Virgil Thomson

I've never known a musician who regretted being one. Whatever deceptions life may have in store for you, music itself is not going to let you down.

Virgil Thomson

Musicians own music because music owns them.

Virgil Thomson

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

Virgil Thomson

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

Virgil Thomson

You explain how it went, and as far as you can figure out how it got that way. (Virgil Thomson)

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

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

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

I don't have to worry No matter what they do to it, it works.

Virgil Thomson

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

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