Life Is A Lot Like Jazz. It's

I Want To Say At Once That I Frankly Believe That Irving Berlin Is The Greatest Songwriter That Has Ever Lived.... His Songs Are Exquisite Cameos Of Perfection, And Each One Of Them Is As Beautiful As Its Neighbor. Irving Berlin Remains, I Think, America's Schubert.

Gershwin's Tragedy Was Not That He Failed To Cross The Tracks, But Rather That He Did, And Once There In His New Habitat, Was Deprived Of The Chance To Plunge His Roots Firmly Into The New Soil.

All Great Composers Of The Past Spent Most Of Their Time Studying. Feeling Alone Won't Do The Job. A Man Also Needs Technique.

Gershwin's Melodic Gift Was Phenomenal. His Songs Contain The Essence Of New York In The 1920s And Have Deservedly Become Classics Of Their Kind, Part Of The 20th-century Folk-song Tradition In The Sense That They Are Popular Music Which Has Been Spread By Oral Tradition (for Many Must Have Sung A Gershwin Song Without Having Any Idea Who Wrote It).

All These Tales Of People Sitting Down And Composing Symphonies Just As Though They Were Writing A Letter Are Very Much Exaggerated; At Least, It Isn't That Way In My Work.