“I was like a well trained pianist who knows which note to hit, but can't make the music his own.”

“A great pianist was once asked by an admirer, "How do you handle the notes as well as you do?" The artist replied, "The notes I handle no better than many pianists, but the pauses between the notes--ah, that is where the art resides!”

“I play the notes as they are written, but it is God who makes the music.”

“I love music, but I can't sing a note.”

“Empty-page staring again tonight. It's maddening. I suppose people who don't write (like the Connollies) imagine anything that can be though can be expressed. Well, I don't know. I can't do it. It's this sort of thing that makes me belittle the whole business: what's the good of a 'talent' if you can't do it when you want to? What should we think of a woodcarver who couldn't woodcarver? or a pianist who couldn't play the piano? Bah, likewise grrr.”

“The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes - ah, that is where the art resides.”