“If you can’t be fearless making music and art, then I would say get out of the way.”— Wayne Coyne, salon.com
“You can appreciate Schubert if you train yourself. I was the same way when I first listened to him—it bored me silly. It's only natural for someone your age. In time, you'll appreciate it.”— Haruki Murakami, amazon.com
“Schubert's music challenges and shatters the ways of the world. That's the essence of Romanticism, and Schubert's music is the epitome of the Romantic.”— Haruki Murakami, amazon.com
“That's why I like to listen to Schubert while I'm driving. Like I said, it's because all the performances are imperfect. A dense, artistic kind of imperfection stimulates your consciousness, keeps you alert. If I listen to some utterly perfect performance of an utterly perfect piece while I'm drivin…”— Haruki Murakami, amazon.com
“My heart kept beat with the slowly moaning drum. The hum of words unsaid. Breathless.”— Courtney Long, lennyletter.com
“When they turned the darker and more private aspects of their marriage into the subject of their music — a move they had steadfastly avoided for 15 years — Beyoncé and Jay-Z managed to kill the rumor that they were nothing but cold-hearted businesspeople in a marriage of convenience. And ironically,…”— Constance Grady, vox.com
“It feels like all the new songs on Apple Music are either Kanye or Post Malone. This has to be one of the circles of hell.”— Samuel Sinyangwe, twitter.com
“Music heard so deeply that it is not heard at all, but you are the music while the music lasts.”— T. S. Eliot, amazon.com
“A musician must make music. An artist must paint. A poet must write. If he is to be ultimately at peace with himself, what a man can be, he must be.”— Abraham Maslow, amazon.com
“While representation among gay artists is certainly limited, a scene welcoming fans of all orientations is baked into the old-school rave values of peace, love, unity and respect.”— Katie Bain, billboard.com
“I hope you enjoy your weekend by listening to all the great new music that’s been offered to you this week. You don’t have to choose and limit your jam choices based on gender. Please don’t.”— Jean Grae, twitter.com
“What’s central to appreciating what Kanye West has meant to the culture is to acknowledge that both sides of him are inextricably connected. He is amazing because he’s terrible.”— Tim Grierson, melmagazine.com
“Well Son, here is your dear Dad, with a letter for you, and pray to God, it will find you, in perfect health…Junior keep up the way you are doing, and don’t let nothing get you down. When you get the blues, Sonny, put on one of the records with songs I wrote you about to Ma, to you, which I sure go…”— Al Capone, csmonitor.com
“Every hidden cell is throbbing with music and life, every fiber thrilling like harp strings.”— John Muir, amazon.com
“A song's wink aligned me with joy. And a tune paradise hums I came to know.”— Hafiz of Persia, bbc.com
“I am a hole in a flute that the Christ's breath moves through—listen to this music.”— Hafiz of Persia, bbc.com
“Sometimes I spend a lot of my life trying to get answers from the people around me instead of listening to myself.”— Dave Matthews, vulture.com