Alan Hovhaness Quotes

"This is not to say that the Scots are not fine people, but they were all sort of... well, my grandfather was a minister and sort of Protestant, and this was rather depressing to me."
- Alan Hovhaness
(Related: People)

"There were periods when I sometimes made fires in a large, open fireplace that lasted about two weeks, which was how long it took to burn my compositions. So there has been an awful lot that I have destroyed."
- Alan Hovhaness
(Related: Open)

"There is nothing like practice."
- Alan Hovhaness
(Related: Nothing, Practice)

"No, no, I didn't know him. He lost his mind around 1917 because of the tragedy of the Armenians."
- Alan Hovhaness
(Related: Mind, Tragedy)

"My mother's background was Scottish. She came from an old family, some of whom lived in upper New York State and some of whom had come over from Scotland."
- Alan Hovhaness
(Related: Family, Mother, Old, Scotland, State)

"I've always regarded nature as the clothing of God."
- Alan Hovhaness
(Related: Nature, God)

"I was born in Somerville, but I don't remember very much about it because we moved from there to Arlington when I was five years old, and it was in Arlington that I spent most of my childhood."
- Alan Hovhaness
(Related: Childhood, Old, Years)

"I think that of my 21 symphonies, each has its own place."
- Alan Hovhaness

"I found a greater identity with my own emotions in the Armenian culture as I grew older, as well as from the beginning, although I didn't know anything about it."
- Alan Hovhaness
(Related: Beginning, Culture, Emotions, Identity)

"I did all kinds of things in order to earn a living."
- Alan Hovhaness
(Related: Living, Order)

"It's hard for me to think of others because I'm not particularly in sympathy with the music of this century."
- Alan Hovhaness
(Related: Music, Sympathy)