Oscar Levant
46 quotes
Biography
"There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line."
"It certainly will be if you are still around."
"Tell me, George, if you had it to do all over, would you fall in love with yourself again?"
"It would have been better if you had died and Gershwin had written the elegy."
"A symphonic conductor should reconcile himself to the realization that, regardless of his approach or temperament, the eventual result is the same — the orchestra will hate him."
"He never asks the orchestra to do anything which contradicts the players' feeling of what the music signifies or what the printed notes of the score actually mean in plain musical language. To his credit he does not pretend to omniscience. When a certain progression of programs with the Philharmonic decreed that he conduct the Brahms Fourth Symphony two seasons ago, he disavowed intensive rehearsals with the simple statement to the orchestra: "Gentlemen, you know the work better than I do." Both the compliment and the attitude endeared themselves so much to the orchestra that they literally forgot themselves in a mass effort to justify his statement—and, as one of those who heard the performance, I can testify that they delivered one of the most powerful and integrated interpretations of the score that New York has experienced in years."
"This piano plays. Which is more than I can say for her."
"It's not a pretty face, I grant you. But underneath its flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character."
"The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue."
"I don't drink liquor. I don't like it. It makes me feel good."
"I'm a study of a man in chaos in search of frenzy."
"Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood and you will find the real tinsel underneath."
"My last picture for Warners was Romance on the High Seas. It was Doris Day's first picture; that was before she became a virgin."
"An epigram is only a wisecrack that's played at Carnegie Hall."
"I heartily approve of her campaign to beautify America. It would be greatly improved if the First Family were kept out of sight."
"Zsa Zsa Gabor not only worships at The Golden Calf, she insists on barbecuing it for lunch."
"The difference between the Republicans and the Democrats is that the Democrats let the poor be corrupt, too."
"John O'Hara was a terrible bore as a young man—always looking for a fight, and making sure he never found one."
"He writes the kind of music you whistle on the way into the theater."
"If George is around, it will."
"It's an advantage having a limited output. When George Gershwin is asked to play his repertoire, he plays all evening. I just play "Lady Play Your Mandolin" and I'm through."
"I envy people who drink — at least they know what to blame everything on."
"What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left."
"I am no more humble than my talents require."
"I have given up reading books; I find it takes my mind off myself."