A rare experience of a moment at daybreak, when something in nature seems to reveal all consciousness, cannot be explained at noon. Yet it is part of the days unity. – Charles Ives
A song has a few rights the same as ordinary citizens… if it happens to feel like flying where humans cannot fly… to scale mountains that are not there, who shall stop it? – Charles Ives
But maybe music was not intended to satisfy the curious definiteness of man. Maybe it is better to hope that music may always be transcendental language in the most extravagant sense. – Charles Ives
There can be nothing exclusive about substantial art. It comes directly out of the heart of the experience of life and thinking about life and living life. – Charles Ives
We have that illusion that we are deciding what to make a character do, in order to convey our message or something like that. But, at least in my experience, you are often more like a river-rafting guide whos been paid a bonus to purposely steer your clients into the roughest possible water. – George Saunders