58 Quotes by Ned Rorem

In music the present is extended.

Music is the sole art which evokes nostalgia for the future.

Bel canto is to opera what pole-vaulting is to ballet.

Artists, by definition innocent, don't steal. But they do borrow without giving back.

Love is a mystery which, when solved, evaporates. The same holds for music.

Quarrels in France strengthen a love affair, in America they end it.

Sooner or later you've heard all your best friends have to say. Then comes the tolerance of real love.

Art's the biggest vanity: the assumption that one's view of peace or fright or beauty is permanently communicable.

An artist doesn't necessarily have deeper feelings than other people, but he can express these feelings. He is like everyone else-only more so! He speaks with a Formal Sigh.