Gordon Getty

“If you have more money than you need, you have to give it away. It's a duty. I get to choose whom to sponsor, and I like to give to the areas that I know something about.”

“My father was so much more than an accomplished businessman.”

“I was in Paris at an English-language bookstore. I picked up a volume of Dickinson's poetry. I came back to my hotel, read 2,000 of her poems and immediately began composing in my head. I wrote down the melodies even before I got to a piano.”

“I feel that I belong to the 19th century. Some composers' music is very topical. It almost says, 'This is about what I read in newspapers yesterday.' Not mine.”

“Nicolette, Kendalle, and Alexandra are my children. Their mother, Cynthia Beck, and I, love them very much.”

“Both parents were very encouraging - especially my father. My father thought the sun rose and set with me. Neither one had a musical background or any musical talent. They liked classical music, but neither could carry a tune.”

“I do not think that music keeps evolving. It evolved through Bach; since then, in my humble opinion, all the innovations added nothing.”

“I've managed to dodge the curse. Not all my family have. Of course, music helped me - music is all about civilization, about something worthwhile. It's all about ideas.”

“I personally do not write highbrow music. If I do, it's by accident.”

“I see only adaptations - not revolutions.”

“It's true that I tend to daydream. I'm the same person in business as I am in music: I can be distracted and absentminded. It's my style.”

“I want to make the world better.”

“When my opera Plump Jack was performed in 1989, my first piano teacher sent me something that I'd composed when I was four. I remember I played it, and it still sounded like me. I'm the same composer I was then.”

“I'm a terrible singer, but it helps when I have to call a taxi.”

“I just have to take my chances like any other composer.”

“There is no change - I'm as deep or as shallow as I ever was. What's new is on-the-job experience. This is what you gain with years.”

“I've had every advantage in the world, despite the 18 years of silence which were nobody's fault but mine.”

“My music is all about an idealistic human personality. I have 19th-century ideals.”

“The Getty family has been fully supportive throughout this situation, and for that, I am very grateful.”

“Either your understanding of the meaning of music is there from the beginning or it is not.”