People ask what was the first piece of music I wrote. There was no first piece. – Richard Rodney Bennett
I hated teaching composition. I was playing music I didn’t particularly want to play, being on committees I didn’t want to be on. – Richard Rodney Bennett
I just scribbled away and eventually a C-major chord was there. I didn’t ever decide I was going to be a composer. It was like being tall. It’s what I was. It’s what I did. – Richard Rodney Bennett
The different parts of my career seemed to take part in different rooms, albeit in the same house. It was just the way things were and I didn’t actually think much about it at the time. – Richard Rodney Bennett
When I came across something I liked, I wanted to find out as much as I could about it. This was as true of hearing Hoagy Carmichael for the first time as it was later when I first heard Boulez. – Richard Rodney Bennett
I was a catastrophe at Science and Games, but the good thing about Quaker schools is that they encourage you in those subjects for which you show an aptitude. – Richard Rodney Bennett
