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" I've had the healthy and sobering experience of constantly working with music that is invariably better than any performance of it can be. "

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" At MGM, you knew you were going to be working next year; you knew you were going to get paid. But I was too ambitious musically to settle for it. And I wanted to gamble with whatever talent I might have had. "

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" When you're working with music that is invariably better than you are, it's difficult to become swell-headed. "

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" When I composed, I heard my music played by the orchestra within days of completion of the score. No master at a conservatory, no matter how revered, can teach as much by verbal criticism as can a cold and analytical hearing of one's own music being played. "

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