Andre Previn quotes:

I don't even have a cell phone. I don't know how they work.

People who don't do jazz think it's black magic. But really, it's just a matter of getting used to it. It's fun to gamble. The trick is not to fall back on the things you've done before.

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.

I admire Elliott Carter endlessly. But I have no ambitions to emulate him.

I found that jazz musicians, possibly more than their classical counterparts, wear long-standing friendships easily and gracefully.

A Beethoven symphony should be rehearsed like chamber music, only for a lot more people.

The basic difference between classical music and jazz is that in the former the music is always graver than its performance - whereas the way jazz is performed is always more important than what is being played.

John Williams is, without question, talented. He writes very good scores and very good melodies and all that.

I finally wasn't interested in writing music that played while actors talked.

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

I have a great many shortcomings, but writing for something on time has never bothered me.

You can chase a Beethoven symphony all your life and never catch up.

If you're going to do good work, the work has to scare you.

I'm on very good terms with all my former wives.

There are a million things in music I know nothing about. I just want to narrow down that figure.