Lansky Quotes & Sayings

My ex-wife has never broken 150. I wish she would stop telling people I taught her how to play golf. — Bruce Lansky

I think of myself as experimenting with different ways of structuring pieces. A lot of it has to do with the computer, of course. — Paul Lansky

If the music has a logic of its own - as I think my music has - an open-minded listener will apprehend and understand. — Paul Lansky

I found myself recycling ideas and I saw that I had to invent reasons to compose a piece rather than start from some exciting idea. — Paul Lansky

I used to go to the driving range to practice driving without slicing. Now I go to practice slicing without swearing. — Bruce Lansky

I think of myself as an experimentalist even though much of my music sounds logical and normal, in a sense. — Paul Lansky

I don't think of my music as being about something. — Paul Lansky

Sometimes I imagine that there's a binary division going on in contemporary practice that has to do with chromatic versus diatonic. I notice that I tend to listen in a diatonic sense, that I register a pitch as a member of a diatonic scale, even in a non-tonal context. — Paul Lansky

We learn so many things from golf: how to suffer, for instance. — Bruce Lansky

Always overpay your taxes.That way you'll get a refund. — Meyer Lansky

All you have to do is recognize an opportunity. — Meyer Lansky

You will always be your child's favorite toy. — Vicki Lansky

So Meyer Lansky was Hyman Roth? Was Marlon Brando Frank Costello? The confusion was compounded when quite serious newspapers started incorporating Godfather comparisons into their reporting on organized crime. — Robert Lacey

I wrote a lot of software to do various kinds of special things, and I loved the idea of composing pieces in an electronic studio. — Paul Lansky

You always nag the one you love — Bruce Lansky

I never thought that I would write orchestra music, but in fact I did write a group of orchestra pieces. — Paul Lansky

Someone once told me that there is more to life than golf. I think it was my ex-wife. — Bruce Lansky

The only thing in my bag that works is the bug spray. — Bruce Lansky

Talking to a golf ball won't do you any good, unless you do it while your opponent is teeing off. — Bruce Lansky

Do not oversleep and miss the school bus-
you'll be late.
That's a habit teachers generally
don't appreciate.
Never tell your friends at school
that you still wet your bed.
They are sure to tease you,
and you'll wish that you were dead.

Never call your teacher a name
when she's not near you.
Teachers' ears are excellent,
so they can always hear you.

Do not read a textbook when your hands
aren't clean-it's tricky
to separate the pages when the pages
get real sticky.
When you go out for a team
it's always wise to practice.
When you are a substitute,
the bench can feel like cactus.

Do not copy homework from a friend
who is a dummy.
If you do, I'm sure that you
will get a grade that's crummy.

And if your report card's bad,
don't blame it on your buddy.
Kiss up to your parents quick,
or they might make you study. — Bruce Lansky

My perspective on the academic world is very favorable. I did certain kinds of things that I could never have done otherwise. — Paul Lansky

My psychiatrist prescribed a game of golf as an antidote to the feelings of euphoria I experience from time to time. — Bruce Lansky

It's very interesting for me to listen to music with my wife. She's not a musician but she very often makes comments about pieces in ways that are similar to what I'm thinking. — Paul Lansky

I had been creating music on tape that was to be listened to as a recording, rather than through performance. — Paul Lansky

There are, however, composers whose music can only be heard in a chromatic sense. George Perle, for example, wrote pieces that you might think of as leaning in a tonal direction but it's very hard to register a pitch as, say, the sixth degree of a scale, whereas in much of my music I think that's often relatively easy to do. — Paul Lansky

Parenting: Nobody really wants the job, but everybody thinks they can do better. — Bruce Lansky

If you want to go to the ball, go. — Bruce Lansky

With a piece of classical music by Haydn, Mozart, or Beethoven, on first listening I'm referencing it with other pieces by them that I know. I think that most people do this - they listen to pieces through the filter of pieces they already know. — Paul Lansky

I'll always remember the day I broke ninety. I had a few beers in the clubhouse and was so excited I forgot to play the back nine. — Bruce Lansky

I can't say that there's a common practice that has to do with pitch language or with the way pieces are put together because today, anything is fair game. As far as I'm concerned, my own common practice is a piece that engages the attention of listeners from beginning to end, and doesn't rely on or expect the listener to zone out. — Paul Lansky

I don't think there's something that you have to 'get' with my music. It tends toward the dramatic side rather than the narrative. — Paul Lansky

All pro sports, as well as the NCAA, should thank God every day we have sports betting here ... We have the only agency in the world that regulates the honesty of games. — Meyer Lansky

I came up in the '60s; that was a time when there was a revolution going on in music. Stravinsky had become a twelve-tone composer; even Aaron Copland was writing twelve-tone pieces at that time! — Paul Lansky

When your first baby drops her pacifier, you sterilize it. When your second baby drops her pacifier, you tell the dog: 'Fetch!' — Bruce Lansky

On a recent survey, 80 percent of golfers admitted cheating. The other 20 percent lied. — Bruce Lansky

I've been really fortunate to have Bridge Records interested in publishing my music for the past 25 years. Most of my music is available in their catalog. — Paul Lansky

A newspaper man wrote an article that I had 300 million dollars, well, I wish I had a million dollars — Meyer Lansky

One day Michelle — Bruce Lansky

I can't possibly go to school today," Michelle pouted, "I have nothing to wear." Her — Bruce Lansky

When you have performers, there's the uniqueness of live performance and what performers do in concerts. — Paul Lansky

In Minnesota it's so cold some nights you have to wear two condoms. — Bruce Lansky

With repeated listenings, a piece eventually becomes its own being. I very often say to students that this is like meeting a person for the first time. When you first meet someone, you reference that person with others who are similar; but, as you get to know that person better, you begin to understand his unique qualities. — Paul Lansky

Too Busy
I've folded all my laundry
and put it in the drawer.
I've changed my linen, made my bed,
and swept my bedroom floor.
I've emptied out the garbage
and fixed tomorrow's lunch.
I've baked some cookies for dessert
and given dad a munch.
I've searched the house for pencils
and sharpened every one.
There are so many things to do
when homework must be done. — Bruce Lansky

I've had a lot of fun writing percussion music. It feels quite similar to writing computer music. But I found myself in the role of choreographer in a way, worrying about physical movement and such. — Paul Lansky

My Teacher Sees Right Through Me
I didn't do my homework.
My teacher asked me, "Why?"
I answered him, "It's much too hard."
He said, "You didn't try."
I told him, "My dog ate it."
He said, "You have no dog."
I said, "I went out running."
He said, "You never jog."
I told him, "I had chores to do."
He said, "You watched TV."
I said, "I saw the doctor."
He said, "You were with me."
My teacher sees right through my fibs,
which makes me very sad.
It's hard to fool the teacher
when the teacher is your dad. — Bruce Lansky

I've seen this movie, you know. It always ends with them falling in love. — Kelly Moran

Don't worry,don't worry.Look at the Astors and the Vanderbilts,all those big society people.They were the worst thieves-and now look at them.It's just a matter of time. — Meyer Lansky

Even today, I notice that some of my pieces are explicitly tonal; there are actually tonics and dominants. And then there are pieces that are not tonal. I tend to think that there's a dichotomy that has to do with the way pitches are structured. — Paul Lansky

I call the years when our children are between six and twelve the "golden years," not because everything's perfect ... but because the kids are capable and independent ... They're becoming fascinating human beings who continually astound us and make us laugh. And they build our self-esteem. They still adore us for the most part, not yet having reached that age of thinking everything we do is dumb, old-fashioned and irrelevant. — Vicki Lansky

The only place you're sure to find love is at the end of a letter from your mother. — Bruce Lansky

A mattoid is a miscreant who seeks to elevate himself by destroying society. Examples include the Rothschilds, David Rockefeller, Franklin Roosevelt, Meyer Lansky, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Leo Tolstoy, Alexander Hamilton, and Josef Stalin. Often mattoids are of high intelligence, tainted geniuses, despite their flawed character and lack of any morality. — Oliver Cromwell

Fathers and sons and brothers, all of us tall and strong and failing. But all of us trying. — Sam Lansky

I was sitting with the rest of my college graduating class listening to the commencement speaker prepare us for life after graduation, and he had a lot of ground to cover because my liberal arts education had skirted the issue for 4 years. I was just waiting for them to call my name so I could go up, collect my diploma, fold it into a paper hat, and start flipping burgers at McDonalds. — Doug Lansky

I think you'll find a significant number of people who decide not to enter competitions because their music just won't fit in that world. — Paul Lansky

I noticed things in my computer music that were getting old, and I started to figure out that this has to do with the way the listener interacts with music. — Paul Lansky

I came to what I think of as the critical problem: the aging process of a piece of music. I noticed in the '70s that pieces I wrote would sound great the first time I listened to them and then on repeated hearings they sounded older and older until what seemed exciting and vibrant on first listening became stale. — Paul Lansky

It's always a thrill for me to see new versions of my pieces on YouTube. — Paul Lansky

What's the point of washing off your ball when teeing off on a water hole? — Bruce Lansky

The experimentation that I do has a lot to do with tunes and pitches and ways that melodies are put together. — Paul Lansky

What I Found in My Desk
A ripe peach with an ugly bruise,
a pair of stinky tennis shoes,
a day-old ham-and-cheese on rye,
a swimsuit that I left to dry,
a pencil that glows in the dark,
some bubble gum found in the park,
a paper bag with cookie crumbs,
an old kazoo that barely hums,
a spelling test I almost failed,
a letter that I should have mailed,
and one more thing, I must confess,
a note from teacher: Clean This Mess!!!! — Bruce Lansky

Don't lie,Tell one lie,then you gotta tell another lie to compound on the first. — Meyer Lansky

I was very fortunate to be at a wealthy institution. I do recognize the drawbacks and limitations of the academic world but it's basically the world I grew up in and there's no way in which I would have been able to survive in the so-called real world. — Paul Lansky

I didn't want my music to be seen as examples of an electronic culture; I just wanted them to be thought of as pieces of music. — Paul Lansky

I don't think I'll live long enough to shoot my age. I'm lucky to shoot my weight. — Bruce Lansky

Some golfers fantasize about playing in a foursome with Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Sam Snead. The way I hit I'd rather play in a foursome with Helen Keller, Ray Charles, and Stevie Wonder. — Bruce Lansky

Very often, when you're listening to a piece for the first time, you're listening through a model of other pieces that you know. At a certain point, a piece becomes idiosyncratic and you start to understand it on its own terms. — Paul Lansky