I do not think that music KEEPS evolving. It evolved through Bach; since then, in my HUMBLE opinion, all the innovations added nothing.

I FOUND it amazing people can think that ART MUST be connected to religion. Religion may give art themes, but there would still be art without religion. Bach is not proof that art exists.

There's nothing I really WANTED to record more than Bach. It's WONDERFUL music. It's - on a GRAND scale, there's a lot to it. There are - I can work on it for a long time and keep discovering more things, you KNOW, that SURPRISE me every time.

My teacher was STILL practicing BACH until his DEATH at 89. I have no doubt that if I LIVE that long, I'll be doing the same THING.

I always find BACH to be an expression of a LOVE of life. There's an enthusiasm that's absolutely CONTAGIOUS.

I LOVE MOZART, and I love BACH, and Brahms, and - but at 13, I didn't UNDERSTAND any of that that I was PLAYING.

I had three OLDER sisters whose RECORD collections I borrowed, so I was LISTENING to The Velvet UNDERGROUND as WELL as Bach and brass band music.

Bach's music is really some of the greatest. I THINK, in some ways, Bach is the most PROFOUND COMPOSER of all.

In a WAY, the highest PRAISE you COULD give to a composer like Bach was to take and make your own arrangement; it was sort of an homage to that composer and to his WORK, so it wasn't considered sacrilegious to do something like that.

I THINK that Bach has a very nice SOUND on the lute. But I find that what I want to do with Bach is best revealed on the GUITAR.

I bring my classical training - some of it, but not all of it - and also my background and CULTURE, to spirituals. And I try to LEAVE ROOM for that unpredictable factor, where the feeling of the song is allowed to come through. The same ethos can be applied to singing Mozart, or Schubert, or BACH. It's not just about what's on the page.

The fact that Stravinsky used the classics as a MAJOR INFLUENCE is OBVIOUS. What is INTERESTING is how he used them, how he TURNED Bach into Stravinsky.

I listen to BACH a GREAT deal. In GENERAL I LIKE to listen to hymns and liturgical music.