26 Quotes by Alan Hovhaness

In back of the house where I was born there was an attic and from there you could see a poorhouse. I remember that very clearly.

I had been composing but I didn't know I was. When I realized that this was what I had been doing, I began to take it seriously.

I’ve always regarded nature as the clothing of God.

My purpose is to create music not for snobs, but for all people, music which is beautiful and healing. To attempt what old Chinese painters called ‘spirit resonance’ in melody and sound.

My mother’s background was Scottish. She came from an old family, some of whom lived in upper New York State and some of whom had come over from Scotland.

I found a greater identity with my own emotions in the Armenian culture as I grew older, as well as from the beginning, although I didn’t know anything about it.

It’s hard for me to think of others because I’m not particularly in sympathy with the music of this century.

I was born in Somerville, but I don’t remember very much about it because we moved from there to Arlington when I was five years old, and it was in Arlington that I spent most of my childhood.