Alan Hovhaness Quotes

Some people are saying that my music is not for Burberry, it's not for fashion. I know where they're trying to go but if you're saying my music is only for deprived and sad people, then you're not helping me and you're not helping yourself. It's meant to be for everyone.

Mozart composed his music not for the elite, but for everybody.

My whole mission in general, ever since I was fourteen, was to write music that would help people heal.

I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity.

I'm not making music for old people or young people. [It's] for everybody that wants to listen to it.

I healed people, emotionally and physically, through my music. I get a lot of e-mails from people who are suffering through a lot of problems. They tell me they put on a Neil Sedaka record, and it's like medicine. It picks them up, and gets them out of their unfortunate situations.

If a poet writes to save his soul, he may save the soul of others.

Folk music is not for a select group of people who feel that maybe he taught them about this music and that it belongs to them. It doesn't belong only to them. It belongs to everyone who's interested in the blueprints of good songwriting.

I know that sounds a little bit corny, but I've found some solace in that. I hope art can continue to do that for people, I really do.

All writers, I think, are to one extent or another, damaged people. Writing is our way of repairing ourselves.

I feel like the actual, the most beautiful thing about a song is that it is something that goes out there in the universe and people use it in the way that they need it in their lives.

Any music can be healing if it inspires, relaxes, encourages or creates enthusiasm for life in you.

I felt so much when I was fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, I felt everything. I didn't understand [myself], I was so happy yet so angry and sad. That was the point when I realized that I needed to tell stories and make characters come alive and I needed to make people cry, and make people angry, and make people happy, and make them laugh.

My biggest advice to people now is that when you go through something traumatic, you've got to go talk to somebody. You've got to be able to understand it, make peace with it inside yourself, and you've got to be able to let it go.

People think that if [their abusive] parent apologizes, he'll turn into the person they needed him to be. He won't. An apology might help, but you can change your life without one.

Forgiving the people that hurt us most allows us to heal from the wounds they left.

It seems that most people need to experience a great deal of suffering before they will relinquish resistance and accept - before they will forgive.

At that moment, something shifted sweetly inside him. It was forgiveness, beautiful and effortless and complete. For Louie Zamperini, the war was over.

You look on the Internet, and people are transforming themselves on a daily basis, and it's not a superficial thing, it's not a vain thing, and it's not an "I don't like the way I look" thing. It's people truly being creative. It's a way of making your mark and making a statement, and I love that. Beauty is making a statement in whichever way you choose to do so, and I think that's a beautiful thing.

People who bullied me have matured now. Some are good friends.

Contrary to popular opinion, classical music does not have to be enjoyed amid exclusive circles, there need not be any snobbishness attached to it. It's there for everyone. I play for the people.

Love falls to earth, rises from the ground, pools around the afflicted. Love pulls people back to their feet. Bodies and souls are fed. Bones and lives heal. New blades of grass grow from charred soil. The sun rises.

Other people are going to find healing in your wounds. Your greatest life messages and your most effective ministry will come out of your deepest hurts.

Words don't heal. Art heals!

People are beginning to recognize reggae music, and know it's a very powerful music, and researchers have been researching and coming up with reports that it's a great music, a healing music