37 Quotes by Charles Ives

The fabric of existence weaves itself whole.

There can be nothing exclusive about substantial art. It comes directly out of the heart of the experience of life and thinking about life and living life.

A rare experience of a moment at daybreak, when something in nature seems to reveal all consciousness, cannot be explained at noon. Yet it is part of the day's unity.

Every great inspiration is but an experiment - though every experiment we know, is not a great inspiration.

But maybe music was not intended to satisfy the curious definiteness of man. Maybe it is better to hope that music may always be transcendental language in the most extravagant sense.

If a composer has a nice wife and some nice children, how can he let the children starve on his dissonances?

It is conceivable that what is unified form to the author or composer may of necessity be formless to his audience.

Vagueness is at times an indication of nearness to a perfect truth.

In 'thinking up' music I usually have some kind of a brass band with wings on it in back of my mind.