Michael Tilson Thomas quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Michael Tilson Thomas

Michael Tilson Thomas Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Michael Tilson Thomas on Wise Famous Quotes.

If you're curious, if you have a capacity for wonder, if you're alive, you know all that you need to know [about music].

I can't do pieces I only admire technically. I have to feel some direct contact with them.

You can't have Bach, Mozart and Beethoven as your favorite composers. They simply define what music is!

If you're alive, you have all the experience necessary to understand classical music.

Extreme volume in music very often disguises a lack of actually important content.

Being an American musician means being adventurous.

What happens when the music stops? Where does it go?

Thank God for movie music. It preserves the rich vocabulary in classical music through challenging times.

The big difference between human happiness and sadness? Thirty-seven freakin' vibrations.

One of my central maxims is how a major part of what a conductor tries to do is get a large group of people to agree on where "now" actually is.

Classical music is a wonderful 1200 year-old tradition that witnesses everything that it has meant and what it means right now to be human.

The world changes when there's music in it.

Being a conductor is kind of a hybrid profession because most fundamentally, it is being someone who is a coach, a trainer, an editor, a director.

Conductors are performers.

This extraordinary group has absolutely captivated my imagination, knocked my socks off - what more can I say?