Morton Feldman Quotes

My dad and I watched 'Amadeus' when I was 6, and I knew I wasn't going to be an engineer.

My studio's always in my house. I want to wake up and be like, 'You know I'm gonna make music today in my underwear. You know what, I'm gonna be in my pajamas. You know what, I'm actually just gonna stay inside for the next three days so I can make music.'

I don't generally listen to music while working, but sometimes music can help me get past minor writer's block.

I get so many ideas for songs, but I'm so seldom disciplined enough to sit down and crank them out.

Of course creativity is a mystery. We don't know what drives it or what constitutes it. It's one of those things, like genius, you know it when you see it but it's impossible to define.

If you get stuck, get away from your desk. Take a walk, take a bath, go to sleep, make a pie, draw, listen to music, meditate, exercise; whatever you do, don't just stick there scowling at the problem. But don't make telephone calls or go to a party; if you do, other people's words will pour in where your lost words should be.

I wander around the house and write in bed, at the kitchen table, by the window, in the yard.

After I left the Pumpkins, I went home and just sat around. I have a studio in my basement, and I found myself writing all these songs, just taking advantage of the relaxed situation. I wrote about 30 songs in about 30 days.

I always have music playing in my studio when I design. It really gets me in the mood and allows me to focus.

Whether it's music or acting, that creativity all comes from the same source.

I write almost entirely in bed or on a couch with my feet up on the coffee table. I feel most creative when I'm looking out the window, and my bed and couch have nice views of the New York skyline.

I don't listen to music when I'm writing, but I often do when I'm reworking, editing or when I need to relax.

Mozart would play a counterpart with his left hand while using his right to mock it. It was blue, dark, shadowy - and it made me feel something. That's when I realized music was inside me.

I think the most important thing about music is the sense of escape.

But then I go through long periods where I don't listen to things, usually when I'm working. In between the records and in between the writing I suck up books and music and movies and anything I can find.

I haven't written an awful lot recently, but I think I probably will start again very shortly. Being so much on the road, when you have a couple of weeks off, you're likely to avoid sitting at the piano, and taping, and giving yourself more work to do.

The piano has been my friend all my life; it has always comforted me. Writing songs and sitting down at the piano is not only a business, it's a hobby I enjoy.

Some of the best songs I've written, I've written in 10 minutes.

Any room where you feel a good vibe is a good place to write.

There's no such thing as writer's block. I'm brilliant all the time every day. It never stops.

Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius.

As I get older, I don't aggressively pursue songs. All the great ones just appear.

I have to take time occasionally to get away from the pressures of this business. If I don't, I think I would get stale, and that would show in my music.

It's what every writer needs: a daybed.

There's something about the air and the sky and the atmosphere in the South of France that must be very conducive to work, to being creative, because I have written several of my books there. I find it so much easier because you're cut off. If you don't want to speak to anybody, basically they don't know where you are. And it's so beautiful.