If an American audience is given a serious musical theater piece that is well produced, dramatically gripping and wonderfully acted, they'll respond …

- Carlisle Floyd

What is American music? The most satisfying answer I've come across is that it was a kind of natural comfort with the vernacular which is diverse and…

- Carlisle Floyd

It seems to me opera is just as relevant as an expressive art as anything else.

- Carlisle Floyd

I've never set out consciously to write American music. I don't know what that would be unless the obvious Appalachian folk references.

- Carlisle Floyd

Anyone who creates something new or does something different artistically is going to be singled out.

- Carlisle Floyd

We think the Puritans always dressed in black and white, which they didn't. They loved very bright colors. And there were other differences in percep…

- Carlisle Floyd

I think anything that is expressed directly and as honestly as possible will last.

- Carlisle Floyd

There is something inherent in our democracy that tends to want to level. America is a little uncomfortable in the presence of someone who is distinc…

- Carlisle Floyd

The performances of my works in the last 10 years are probably equal to all the previous years put together. There are so many venues now and there i…

- Carlisle Floyd