I've had little success in intellectual circles. I'm not talked about in the 'New York Review of Books,' and I was never part of the Stravinsky 'inner circle.' Samuel Barber More Quotes by Samuel Barber More Quotes From Samuel Barber I was meant to be a composer and will be I'm sure. Don't ask me to try to forget this unpleasant thing and go play football - please. Samuel Barber destiny music football I was supposed to be a doctor. I was supposed to go to Princeton. And everything I was supposed to do I didn't. Samuel Barber princeton supposed-to-be doctors How awful that the artist has become nothing but the after-dinner mint of society. Samuel Barber dinner awful artist I have always believed that I need a circumference of silence. As to what happens to when I composer, I really haven't the faintest idea. Samuel Barber silence ideas needs He is a lyric poet . . . aloof from the swirling currents in which many of his colleagues are immersed. Samuel Barber currents poet music I think that what's been holding composers back a great deal is that they feel they must have a new style every year. This, in my case, would be hopeless. In fact, it is said that I have no style at all, but that doesn't matter. I just go on doing, as they say, my thing. I believe this takes a certain courage. Samuel Barber great style courage believe I can only say that I myself wrote always as I wished, without a tremendous desire to find the latest thing possible. Samuel Barber say myself i-can desire I was 7 years old when I began composing. I began composing, improvising at the piano, the usual story. Samuel Barber old story piano years There's no reason music should be difficult for an audience to understand. Samuel Barber understand difficult music reason As for my own music, I've never written a book about it. I'm not pedagogical... When I write an abstract piano sonata or a concerto, I write what I feel. I'm not a self-conscious composer. Samuel Barber feel my-own music book I guess, for better or for worse, I am an American composer, and I've had a wonderful life being exactly that. Samuel Barber i-am better being life
