Great Throughts Treasury

"Adventures don't begin until you get into the forest. That first step in an act of faith."

"Music is feeling. Once you start thinking about it then you overdevelop it. It should come from the heart, the soul, and the subconscious. Music is all about the moment, and if you think about it then you're already in the next moment"

"Life is about rhythm. We vibrate, our hearts are pumping blood, we are a rhythm machine, that's what we are."

"The adventure of composition is a mystery. The muse has her ways, she hides from you, comes for you in the middle of the night, at midday, at dawn. You must believe wholeheartedly in this divine power. Its an elusive gift that can appear at any time, anywhere. Artists are in awe of it."

"Dreams sometimes foretell the future."

"A good groove releases adrenaline in your body. You feel uplifted, you feel centered, you feel calm, you feel powerful. You feel that energy. That's what good drumming is all about."

"Art in the classroom not only spurs creativity, it also inspires learning. More organizations concerned with the state of science education in this country are beginning to embrace this idea. The National Academy of Sciences, for example, is reaching out to the artistic community through its Science & Entertainment Exchange, which matches scientists with filmmakers to more accurately portray science -- and scientists -- on screen. It also encourages collaborations between teachers and creative figures in the entertainment industry, including video-game designers, to develop tools to stimulate learning."

"Egyptian drumming happens to be a favorite of mine. It's a really simple instrument, but it's really difficult to play. You can take it anywhere with you - you can play it in your room, in an airport. It's very quiet, so you explore the quiet side."

"Go out and do it and take it to 'em. And play the music."

"Everybody had a feeling. It just wasn't there. ..We put it to pasture, righteously as it should be."

"I never wanted a hit single, ever. I thought as soon as we stopped becoming hungry, we wouldn't play hungry. And that's what happened."

"I don't propose to simply add art or music classes to the schedule. I mean making the arts a key variable in the STEM equation. Art sparks creativity and instills a sense of wonder and discovery without which learning often winds up being nothing more than rote memorization. Instead of teaching our kids to memorize well, we should be teaching them to think for themselves and to apply their imaginations. We need to fill their heads with more than just facts if they are going to compete in the global economy that is a knowledge economy. Creative thinking is what is needed to, in President Obama's words, "out-innovate" and "out-educate" the rest of the world. It's creativity that links education and innovation by taking what is learned in the classroom and using it to make something new."

"I hated science in high school. Technology? Engineering? Math? Why would I ever need this? Little did I realize that music was also about science, technology, engineering and mathematics, all rolled into one."

"I thought the '60s was the most exciting time and the most vital music, and we were really together as one mind then. Then afterwards, the songs and the bad drugs, that took its toll."

"It's a good thing to share and whet their appetite, Of course, it increased our audience."

"It is easy. All you need to know is that it can happen. Once you realize that you are toying with a very powerful energy then you can use that. Once you realize it can be used in healing and that it has therapeutic qualities, then you can use this feeling to uplift and make a better would for yourself and others. You just have to realize that this is not a gift to be squandered. It is not a luxury, it is a necessity. It is one of the prime forces of the evolution of the brain and of us as a species. If you use it to practice trance and ecstasy, you will evolve and contribute to a better world. You just have to know what it is. Most people don?t. Musicians know, and some great listeners and lovers of music might know. The general public isn?t really aware of its power but I hope this book and other projects like to will focus them."

"It?s the sacredness of music. Music transcends reality. It heightens your awareness and brings you to an altered state. When you go into an altered state, you leave behind your pains and aches and the business of the day so that new priorities may appear. That?s what some call the sacred dimension, and it is what you might call religion. It is the sacred within each of us, as you start thinking about the higher things in life: love, compassion, your children, your wife. There?s a new heat in your body which is filled with the feelings that you usually have when you walk down the street. Music is that kind of energy that releases some kind of fluid or maybe it?s adrenaline. We don?t know what it is but science is about to find out."

"My experience with pre-college is... they're primarily interested in getting good test scores and getting into classes."

"Neuroscientists also have shown that the brain is hardwired for music, innovation and creativity, all other human activities follow. No human culture known to historians or anthropologists has ever existed without music and dance. The arts are a necessity for insight: the arts make us human.The energy that you acquire from art and music turns inspiration into invention. This allows an inventor to dream up something never envisioned before and creates new industries and good-paying jobs."

"Its vibration and it works on the brain. What part of the brain, what frequency, what rate, how is the brain different after a musical experience, all of this is being studied. Melody, harmony, rhythm. The big science is now looking at that. We know that rhythm has to do with trance, ecstasy and rapture, and the more interesting auditory driving studies have to do with rhythm."

"People will always try to find themselves and their place in the world."

"Rhythm is there in the cycles of the seasons, in the migrations of the birds and animals, in the fruiting and withering of plants, and in the birth, maturation and death of ourselves."

"She spoke my name for the first time in a year. She ... sort of came out of the darkness for a few minutes. That's when I really thought there's something to this for the aged (and) infirm."

"The point is that the arts are important enough to have influenced the greatest minds and talents we know. Albert Einstein said that if he were not a physicist, he would probably be a musician. "Music helps him when he is thinking about his theories," his wife reported. "I often think in music," Einstein admitted. "I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music... I get most joy in life out of music.""

"There's nothing like music to relieve the soul and uplift it."

"The theme of the posters is 'Maybe history got things a little too straight'... We think it's important to make people aware of accomplished, successful people who don't fit stereotypes of an LGBT person. They humanize LGBT issues."

"There are three ways of listening, with the ears, with the eyes and the heart. You can make visual contact and make sure that the audience is in rhythm with the music and that gives you a synch, a connection. What you do in music is look for connections, both to the audience and to yourself, deep inside. Then there?s the aural connection- how the audience sounds. Are they festive, are they joyous, are they somber? Then there?s the one from the heart, the spiritual connection, the compassion and love you feel that?s being exchanged between the audience and the performer. These three things are the cornerstones and the building blocks of great performances both for the audience and the performer. The audience has the same connection the performer does, they?re just looking at it from different sides of the stage."

"This is live recording right now, from Mickey's brain."

"What is the best music is impossible to define. Just because it's played by a virtuoso player, doesn't mean it's great music. It might not reflect the soul of a people, which is really my criteria for great music."

"When the Grateful Dead needed a quality sound system to deliver our sonic payload, I learned electronics and speaker design."

"This mystery mind that we have can be used for other things than dancing and pleasure. It can be used as medicine... the concept of 'good vibrations' as a healing tool -- as well as something you can dance to."