Quotes

[2001, interview in New York Times] Fate has blessed me. But if there's one thing I regret, it's this accursed festival. It's robbed too much of my time from composition and from the chance to just be curious about life, art and philosophy. Suddenly there's no time left, and it makes me feel desperate.

[in 1981, interview on the Spoleto Music Festival] I started Spoleto because I did not want to be the marginal person, the entertainer. I wanted to have a community, to be part of a community.

[about the Spoleto Music Festival] I needed to feel that I was needed. Thirty years ago, Spoleto was on the verge of bankruptcy. Now it's a flourishing town that owes its life to the festival.

[1981 interview about the Spoleto Music Festival] I feel like the sorcerer's apprentice I've started something and I don't know how to stop it.