And it is this sense that some of us have to contribute to the culture, to the society in ways that may hurt financially, so what? We do it because we are born to do it, we feel we have no other choice and so be it.
- Gunther Schuller Quote

As rich as Cincinnati was in live music, New York was even more.
- Gunther Schuller Quote

Because I have sixty years of being a professional composer, conductor, musician, whatever, and you develop a lot of friendships and you get involved with a lot of sort of long-term commitments and obligations.
- Gunther Schuller Quote

But somehow, I felt no inclination to be interested in it in any amateur way, let alone professional, until suddenly I became interested. And the first thing I did was to compose: not play an instrument, but to compose.
- Gunther Schuller Quote

I would like to read some books: I don't have time; I would like to continue working on my autobiography.
- Gunther Schuller Quote

So now, thirty years, forty years later, I mean, I could find a whole orchestra of a thousand to put these things together in New York City alone. In those days, if I could scrape up twenty musicians to do this it was something extraordinary.
- Gunther Schuller Quote

That was more or less coincidental in the sense that my parents wanted me to come back to New York because that's the center of musical activity still to this day, more or less, and so I auditioned for the Metropolitan Opera.
- Gunther Schuller Quote

The record company started as an adjunct to that, to give young composers their first recorded performances; to give young musicians their first debut on a recording. These are all things that big record companies would never touch because there is no money in it!
- Gunther Schuller Quote

Well, because music is my life and music is not work for me.
- Gunther Schuller Quote