Carlisle Floyd

“It's necessary to track characters all the way through an opera. If you're dealing with more than one or two characters, it's very easy to forget that the others have lives of their own that feed into the story.”

“I find it enormously valuable to be sure that that the pacing is what I think it is and that the scenes have the shape I think they have musically and dramatically.”

“Our most intimate contact with civilizations long since dust has been through the art which has survived them.”

“You can't possibly predict what will last or not. But once you attempt to write for the ages, you're doomed.”

“Opera is given so little attention in the national press.”

“There is something inherent in our democracy that tends to want to level. America is a little uncomfortable in the presence of someone who is distinctly superior in whatever way.”

“I think anything that is expressed directly and as honestly as possible will last.”

“When I've seen my operas in Europe, they have always struck me as more American than when I hear them here. I can't tell you what that phenomenon is.”

“I found a certain kind of music congenial to me; it never occurred to me to write music that was academically acceptable.”

“America tends to worship the modest talent because it doesn't put us in an uncomfortable position vis-a-vis the artist.”

“I had all the normal interests - I played basketball and I headed the school paper. But I also developed very early a great love for music and literature and the theater.”